Evolving Stratagems
by Aminti
Summary: Sequel to Wanderlust. Every region is distinct, every journey different, change the only constant between them. Beginning trainers no longer, Max and Danny leave home once more, eager to improve and meet new friends. What dreams will they chase and what adventures will they face in Kalos?
1. Grandiose Lumiose

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

 **Author's Note:** Welcome to the sequel to Wanderlust. If you haven't checked that out, you'll probably not know what's going on, and you should probably at least skim most of that to keep up, even if the first few chapters are weak. Wanderlust, and this story by definition, diverged after AG192 (Home Is Where The Start Is!), and everyone from the AG-or-earlier cast is aged up by two years. By now, Max is twelve-and-three quarters, having left home nine months prior to this chapter; May is just about to turn 15, having competed in the Johto Grand Festival; and Ash is 17, having won the Lily of the Valley Conference off-screen. In addition, I've also tampered with the ages of the XY and XYZ cast, but those aren't captured by a simple 'two years older than stated'. You'll see me mention their ages when relevant.

And now, on with the show.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Grandiose Lumiose**

" _Ultimately, the differences between the two Mega Evolutions are irrelevant for most Trainers right now. Mega Stones are rare, and there are only four known instances of_ Charizardite X _or_ Y. _If you run across one of them, be sure to write to_ Pokémon Illuminated _, and we'll be sure to feature your account in one of our next issues!"_

The sound of a speaker popping made Max Maple look up, away from the magazine he had been given for Christmas. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are approaching Lumiose Airport and will shortly start our final descent. it is currently fourteen-thirty six local time, and our landing should be in approximately fifteen minutes, ten minutes behind schedule," the Captain of their plane informed everyone. "The local weather is sunny, with temperatures just below freezing and snow forecast for overnight."

The Captain's deep voice was replaced with the pleasant voice of one of the flight attendants, telling them to secure their luggage, put seats and tray tables right, and so on. Max had heard that before, and he tuned most of it out to fully wake his best friend next to him. "Hey, sleepyhead," he said, poking the taller teenager in the shoulder, "time to wake up."

"I'm up," said Danny Birch, Max's best friend for quite a few years now, voice sluggish with drowsiness. "We already landing?"

"You slept for three hours," Max told his friend as he put his magazine away, stowing his small backpack under his chair where it was safe. "I don't know how you do it," he added. Truth be told, he was a bit envious of Danny's ability to sleep. Max felt fine now, but he had been up for nearly fifteen hours already. It'd be pretty embarrassing if he crashed on the way to the Pokémon Center.

"Well, I'm not complaining," Danny told Max smugly, stretching as best he could in his window seat. "Just try not to fall asleep on the streets, okay. That might hurt a bit."

"Ya think," Max muttered, but any further reply was cut off by the flight attendant asking them to fasten their seatbelts now. Another attendant started moving, picking up cups and glasses.

All too soon, both of them felt the plane start to descend. Neither of them said anything for a spell, until… "Whoa!" Danny exclaimed rather loudly. "Lumiose is enormous."

What little Max could see from his seat next to the aisle confirmed it. Even from what he could see, it just looked several times bigger than Mauville was. Of course, he knew that already, having checked the area of both cities in the respective region guides beforehand, but as he had found out many times, knowing something and seeing or feeling it were very different things.

Even if it involved Pokémon attacks.

Approximately two hours later, the two teenagers exited their shuttle transport from the airport, getting out near the central Pokémon Center on Magenta Plaza as the last ones to leave the bus. In fact, they got off close enough that they could see it right in front of them; a four-storey sprawling building that was bigger than any Pokémon Center Max had ever seen, though one of the ones at the Indigo Plateau came close. It only caught their attention for a moment.

To their left was Lumiose's defining feature: the marvel of engineering that was Prism Tower. Towering over the rest of the town at nearly a thousand feet – a _thousand –_ tall, the white tower housing the Lumiose Gym was currently not lit up yet, but Max knew that the panes in its sides would emit soft light once the sun actually set.

Right now, however, he was just in awe at the sheer size of it. _Jirachi_ it was huge.

"Jirachi, huh. You must be from Hoenn," came a voice from behind them.

Upon turning around, Max saw a teenager, about as tall as Danny was, but obviously a year or two older, leaning against a lamppost a few feet behind them, arms folded. He had blonde hair and round glasses, and he was wearing something that looked like light-blue overalls under a same-colour winter coat. "Well, am I right?"

"You are," Max confirmed, shifting his carry-on luggage to his left hand and extending his right. "I'm Max, from Petalburg in Hoenn, as you guessed." They shook hands, and Danny introduced himself as well. "How'd you guess?"

"Well… One, jirachi is a Mythical Pokémon associated with Hoenn and two, the airport tag on your backpack is colour-coded for the Home Regions area," the teen started, prompting Max to take a look at the red-and-white tag hanging off of one of the zips. "It's a simple process of deduction." Rapid footsteps announced the arrival of someone else. "And now it's time for us to introduce ourselves. My name's Clemont, and this," he said as he stepped aside to reveal a girl wearing a bright yellow coat, "is my little sister Bonnie."

"I'm not your little sister," Bonnie huffed. "I'm eleven."

"And I'm fifteen, so you are my little sister," Clemont told her. Bonnie made a quick rude face, but dropped it when Clemont looked at her. "Bonnie, these are Max and Danny. They just arrived from Hoenn, and if I were to guess… They're here to go for the Kalos League."

"Right again," Danny confirmed. "More deductions?"

"Kind of," Clemont admitted. "But boys can't go for Pokémon Showcases, so Trainers like you coming here tend to do it for sight-seeing or the Kalos League. You don't look like sightseers." The teen pushed his glasses up his nose. "Call it an educated guess." Around them, street lights started to switch on. "So, want to get a room at the Center and see inside Prism Tower? It's quite a treat, I'll have you know."

"Isn't Prism Tower closed?" Danny wondered before Max could. "Back home, all Gyms are closed in the week between Yule and New Year's."

"It's the same here, but I can get you in no problem," Clemont said, a smirk dancing on his face.

"My brother's the Lumiose City Gym Leader," Bonnie blurted out, showing her tongue to Clemont when he turned towards her. "He can do anything he wants with Prism Tower."

"Not _anything_ Bonnie," Clemont said, sighing in a way that was very familiar to Max, though he couldn't place it. "But yes, I am the Lumiose Gym Leader. Off for the week, which is why I'm here and not there."

Max snorted softly. Figures that the first person they ran into was the local Gym Leader. "Well, I'm game. Danny?"

"If you don't fall asleep."

Max scowled at the unapologetic Danny. "I'm good for now. Don't want to fall asleep yet anyway." The cup of tea he'd picked up at the airport helped in that, even if it had been very bad.

"Ah, jet lag," Clemont said. "You'll be fine. Going back is easy to fix. Going forward is the hard part. Sure found that out when I went to Sinnoh last summer," he added in a mutter. "Anyway, let's go get you a room."

After dropping off the luggage and getting a quick tour through the general Pokémon Center – they had _wigglytuff_ as Nurse Joy's aides here apparently – the four of them walked up to Prism Tower. "Wait a second..." Clemont said, pushing his sleeve back. Max saw a glimpse of a digital watch. "Ah, it's nearly five. This way. You're going to like this."

He sat the group down on a bench at the edge of the circular square, ignoring Danny's question about what he was doing. Bonnie didn't look like she was going to give them any answers either, and so Max and Danny had to wait.

They didn't have to wait long. Close-by, a set of bells rang, first in a cheerful melody, and then they rang to tell the time.

And with every chime, part of Prism Tower lit up with a soft white light, until the fifth chime lit the brighter light in the tower's top. "Pretty cool, huh."

"Worth it," Danny agreed, and Max nodded. "Does it stay lit up all night?"

"Until eleven, except for the top, which is dimmed," Clemont told them as he led them to one of the entrances to the tower. "It's a courtesy to those living nearby, so they aren't blinded by the light if they have to get up in the middle of the night, or are trying to sleep." They reached the entrance, a simple pass code panel to the side of the entrance.

Clemont punched in what had to be twenty digits in no time at all. Even if Max had wanted to try to figure out the code, he was sure he would have lost track by the third digit. They went in, Bonnie first and Clemont last, stepping into a dimly-lit room. "Soft lights!"

The Gym Leader's call caused the lights to brighten, revealing that they were in a reception area with three other exits: the other faces of the tower's base. In the centre of the room, a pair of glass cylinders shot upwards into the ceiling. "The Gym's up two floors," Bonnie told them as they walked to the elevator at the bottom of one of the cylinders. "And there's observation platforms on nearly every floor above that. Lots of people walk in just for that when we're opened."

They entered the spacious elevator, Clemont making to press a button, but pausing. "Actually. Do you want to have a battle before we go up? Lumiose is more beautiful when the sun has fully set, and that's going to be a while. Not a Gym Battle, of course," he added for a reason Max didn't know. "Just a friendly match, no strings attached."

"That's okay," Danny said. "I'm not sure I want to fight a Gym Battle when I've been here for three hours." He poked Max's shoulder. "Ash might though."

Max snorted. That sounded like Ash alright. "I'm with ya on the Gym Battle. How about we all do one battle against each other? One on one?" The others agreed, and Clemont pressed a button, sending them upwards.

They exited the elevator on a floor that reminded Max of Wattson's Gym, only far creepier in the dim green light. The electricity arcing through various tubes didn't help either, but at least that gave a clear clue to the Gym's type, for those who hadn't read up on the Gyms in Kalos. "Creepy much?" Danny remarked, apparently thinking the same thing Max was.

"See, I told you it's creepy," Bonnie told her older brother. "Why won't you change it?"

"Alright, alright. I just thought it was a cool way of showing my Type." They reached the entrance to the arena, the door once again locked, a panel to the side again. Clemont held a triangular thing – his badge, probably – up to the panel, and a scanning noise echoed through the hallway before the door opened without a sound. "If you're a challenger, you let your trainer data on the Pokédex be scanned. That way, I know who's in and how many badges they have, which is important for picking the right Pokémon."

"And if they don't have any badges yet?" Max wondered as they stepped into a very spacious arena. The floor was a lot more sandy than he was expecting from an Electric-type Gym, weirdly, but maybe that was the Kalos standard. "I mean, we don't have any Kalos badges, but sending a beginner squad out would be..."

"A bad idea?" Clemont finished for him. "It detects all badges, not just Kalos ones. So for you, it'd pick up on the eight Hoenn badges you probably have. Come, I'll show you." The Gym Leader led them over to a computer set up out of sight. "Can you give your Pokédex to Bonnie, Max? And Bonnie, can you go to the scanner?"

"Sure!" Bonnie said, accepting the miniature computer. "That's a weird design. Ours are much better."

"Bonnie..."

"Alright, alright," the pre-teen girl said, walking off.

"Right, so, when a Pokédex is scanned, I get a notification." As if planned, a pop-up appeared on screen. When Clemont tapped it, a programme opened, showing the badges Max had received in Hoenn, in order of acquisition. "If you have badges from more than one region, the newest region would be on top. So if you'd scan your Pokédex after getting a Voltage Badge, you'd see that first, and then your eight Hoenn badges."

Bonnie returned, giving Max his Pokédex back before pushing between Max and Clemont to see what was on the screen. "Oh, that's a cute badge," she said, pointing to the first badge and pressing it. Immediately, the Mind Badge enlarged, and underneath it, some data appeared, like the date Max had got it, the Gym Leaders that gave it out, and the location. "Tate and Liza? Two Gym Leaders?"

"They're twins. You fight them in a Double Battle," Danny told her.

"Oh, I see." Bonnie pressed her finger to the screen again, pulling up Max's general trainer data. "Clemont, this is weird," she said, pointing at Max's date of birth. "Why is the year first?"

"That's just how it's done in Hoenn," Clemont replied. "Anyway, eight badges and probably the Hoenn League earlier this month, right?" Max and Danny nodded. "Okay. That gives me a good idea of what to expect, but why don't you two go first anyway. Show me what Hoenn has to offer."

"You want to go all out?" Danny asked, addressing Max. "Or just training spar."

"Let's do all-out," Max replied, grinning. "It's been too long since we had shields around." That had been before leaving for Ever Grande, back home in Petalburg. "At least, I'm assuming you have those here as well."

"Sure," Clemont said, tapping a few keys. A panel slid away, revealing a pair of bronzong. "Whenever you're ready. I'll be the referee."

Max made to walk to one end, but Danny put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Bonnie," he said, "why don't you choose our Pokémon. That way we'll have a fair battle."

"You just don't want to see another grovyle against marshtomp," Max grumbled half-heartedly, but he unclipped all six of his pokéballs anyway, as did Danny. "Here, choose."

Bonnie took the capsules, holding onto them while the teens put the five other Pokémon back on their belts. She handed both of them back, Max receiving ninjask's pokéball. As long as it wasn't aron in Danny's hand, he would be fine.

It was masquerain, and he opened the battle with a wide Gust, sending out waves of wind that also kicked up a lot of the sand on the arena floor. The attack buffeted ninjask, who wove with the incoming wind, before darting downward, avoiding the sneaky Stun Spore masquerain had tried to release overhead after the Gust.

A quick but weak Shadow Ball was easily stopped by a defensive set of Bubbles. Ninjask would have to get in close. "Double Team," Max ordered.

Ninjask split into four, each copy moving independently, and roughly surrounded the masquerain. Danny's Pokémon did nothing to disrupt any of the clones, instead only moving through the air, alternating quick glides with beats of its wings. Max wasn't sure what Danny waiting for him, but he was certain it wasn't good. "Slash."

The moment two of the clones moved in, masquerain spun on his axis, unleashing a Bubble attack that wrapped itself around him in a small cylinder, quickly obscuring him from view. One clone popped only one bubble – that was a fake ninjask – but another shot through the wall twice, and came out protesting if the buzzing sound was any indication.

Then, as ninjask flew away slower than Max wanted, masquerain landed a Quick Attack that ninjask didn't dodge. Max's bug righted himself a bit lower, and flew over to his trainer, still buzzing.

Ninjask's wings were wet. That explained a few things. "Fly the water off and send some Shadow Balls in," Max ordered, spotting another Gust incoming. "Watch out for Stun Spore too."

True to Max's prediction, masquerain tried another Stun Spore, this one specifically aimed low to take advantage of ninjask staying close to the ground, but Max's bug rose vertically, spiralling upward until it was above the masquerain, sending in a Shadow Ball that scored a glancing hit.

Above. Of course! It was a cylinder, not a cocoon. Max whistled once, and ninjask flew down, using the Gust as a speed boost. "Double Team into Slash again," Max told his Pokémon softly. "But wait for my mark to attack for real."

Ninjask flew off again, once more splitting into four, and masquerain treated that the same way he had done before. Two clones flew in, and that, too, elicited the same response as before, and a cylinder of bubbles surrounded masquerain. "Get in from underneath, Fury Swipes!"

The real ninjask revealed himself by putting on a burst of speed and making impossibly tight corners to dive into the open bottom of the cylinder, launching the masquerain out of his protective barrier. "Fury Swipes all-in!"

Masquerain tried to get ninjask off, but he couldn't manage. Gusts were avoided because ninjask was too fast, and all over him. Stun Spore took time to start. After being hit three more times, Danny's Pokémon tried to get away with a Quick Attack, but while masquerain was fast, ninjask was _faster_ , seemingly effortlessly keeping up in an intricate dance that stopped when ninjask's movements forced masquerain to go too low to the ground. One little nudge sent ninjask tumbling, but it also forced masquerain into the arena floor, where it landed hard, skidding.

Danny returned masquerain, sending a thumbs up. Max returned ninjask, thanking him for his awesome speed.

"Pretty good battle," Clemont praised them when they met up, Max and Danny shaking hands. "I don't get to see an aerial battle often." He smiled knowingly. "For some reason, people don't like to use Flying-types in here."

Everyone let out a short laugh. "Why'd masquerain faint? You didn't hit it that often," Bonnie asked afterwards.

"Max does all sorts of crazy stuff with ninjask," Danny replied with a smirk. "The speed makes ninjask hit hard, and masquerain is lighter, so he'll come off worse."

"Of course," Clemont said. "Force is mass times acceleration. Ninjask isn't that heavy, but because it's so fast, any contact move does a lot of damage."

"Exactly," Danny agreed. "As long as your opponent is lighter. Aron just shrugs everything off."

"Aron are about as heavy as I am," Clemont told Bonnie, who nodded. "Max, want to fight me next?"

Max agreed, and they walked back to the boxes. Both of them took out a pokéball and threw them up into the air, releasing clefairy, which prompted Bonnie to let out a cry of "it's so cute!" and a magneton, to Max's annoyance. He'd been hoping for something land-bound, and something that didn't resist everything clefairy could throw at it.

That was what Metronome was for, though. "Metronome," he ordered as Danny gave the signal to start. He kept an eye on the magneton, unsurprised when he saw the signs of a Flash Cannon.

Flash Cannon met Tri Attack, the triple elemental attack and the silvery-white beam equally matched and causing a small vision-obscuring explosion in the middle. Clefairy had already broken off the attack by then, hopping sideways and unleashing another Metronome. This one summoned a white ball that she flung upwards, where it sparked golden, causing the field to light up harshly.

Sunny Day was good at least. Perhaps he'd get a Fire-type move too?

Magneton hadn't been doing nothing, and a Flash Cannon barely missed clefairy, who jumped over it. Her jump did mean a red ring was unavoidable. "Encore, then Metronome."

The Encore hit, locking magneton into Lock-On for a short spell. The Electric-type threw itself into a bodily tackle to hinder clefairy, but while that did block clefairy's Metronome for now, Max's Fairy-type just jumped away half an arena before using the attack again.

Max wasn't expecting the Weather Ball. Magneton wasn't either, and it ate the fiery ball head-on, followed by a quick Magical Leaf as it made its way back to clefairy, trying to ram itself into her. Clefairy, once again, jumped away, a red ring following her all the way to Clemont.

Then Max saw a yellow-green orb form in front of magneton. "Disarming Voice!" he shouted across the arena.

The attack exploded the Zap Cannon in mid-air, blocking Max's sight of clefairy. Magneton followed it up with a Sonic Boom, and Max couldn't tell if it hit or not. He didn't hear anything, which was good. "Metronome!"

A pink-and-yellow streaked ball of energy shot forward a few seconds later as clefairy launched herself into a Giga Impact, straight at the magneton that had been moving closer to her in an effort to land a Lock-On. That happened, but then the Giga Impact hit home, sending both of them to the ground, dust blocking Max's sight of the Pokémon again.

The crackle of electricity was a bad sign, and before he could react, a second Zap Cannon slammed into clefairy's back.

The cry clefairy let out wasn't one of pain. It was one of agony.

Max ran onto the field, only half noticing the shields falling. Clefairy was lying on the ground, smoke coming off of her in small ringlets. She was shaking, and every shake caused a small whimper to escape her lips, even after Max lifted her up. "It's okay, it's okay," he whispered, "it's over." Footsteps around him announced the arrival of the others, but Max ignored them, taking a good look at his clefary's back.

The scar looked inflamed, worse than anything Max had seen since the night he had saved clefairy.

He returned clefairy, locking her in stasis for good measure, and finally looked up again. Around him, the three others wore worried expressions. "Old injury," Max said, quickly adding an explanation of how he had caught clefairy. "Guess magneton's Zap Cannon hit it just wrong." He shrugged. "Risk of the battle. You were probably winning. I had nothing to really damage magneton."

Danny and Clemont gave Max looks that told him that they saw through his nonchalant attitude. "You were so lucky with the Sunny Day and Weather Ball," Clemont said. "I thought I was fighting Valerie for a second there."

"Valerie?" Max and Danny echoed.

"Laverre's Fairy-type Gym Leader. Her clefable knows Sunny Day and Flamethrower and that completely caught me off-guard the last time we had a battle." Clemont's smile was a bit forced, Max felt. "It's a silly thing to expect, but after last battle, I wasn't sure what to expect from both of you."

"Will clefairy be okay?" Bonnie asked.

"It's nothing Nurse Joy can't fix," Clemont told her. "It's the risk of battle, as Max said. Sometimes, Pokémon are injured. Trainers try not to do that, but it happens." The Gym Leader enlarged a pokéball. "Danny?"

"You're on."

Clemont's Pokémon caused Max to grin openly. It would be interesting to see how Danny dealt with this manectric. Froslass was pretty good at dealing with Max's manectric by now.

The first moves on both sides were predictable. Froslass summoned Hail, shutting off any remnants of the Sunny Day and making sure she was harder to hit. Manectric used an Electric-type ranged attack: Thunderbolt if Max wasn't mistaken. He should really get on teaching that to his own canine.

It didn't matter for froslass, used as she was to dodging Thunder Waves as an opener. She vanished into the Hail, only to reveal her position moments later, firing a Shadow Ball.

Manectric hadn't been standing still, but it kept a distance, dodging the Shadow Ball with ease and returning fire with a white orb from its mouth. The orb shot up, exploding into a wide net that revealed froslass. Odor Sleuth did its job once again, as it had done many times for Max's manectric in her battles with Danny's Ghosts.

A Powder Snow put white on the floor, but manectric avoided it, taking a deep breath and unleashing a Flamethrower that immediately melted the snow near it, nearly scorching froslass. The canine followed it up with a Thunderbolt that did threaten to hit, but froslass got a Protect off at the last second.

The recoil from the attack bouncing back made manectric jump a tiny bit, but Danny didn't exploit that. Instead, he ordered froslass to send Shadow Balls in. She obeyed, weaving around the arena as she formed the orbs, making sure that she avoided staying in one place for any period of time. She did move closer to her opponent, and Max wondered if Clemont would take the bait.

He did, ordering a Discharge. His manectric ran in, fur sparking, but froslass traded being hit by that for getting off a Confuse Ray.

She looked better than she had after the last time she'd been on the receiving end of that attack, but that had been close to three weeks back, and Max knew froslass was one of Danny's favourite Pokémon to train. Probably had spent time working with her over the break.

The Ice-type flew off, high into the air, putting distance between her and the confused manectric. She had to avoid an aimed Thunderbolt, but the next Thunderbolt was aimed at Max, blinding him for a second as the shields in front of him thrummed with power to contain the electricity.

When Max's vision of the field returned, he saw froslass execute her preferred strategy of freezing the entire field with a powerful Icy Wind, the powerful move bearing down on manectric as well. What was new, however, was her following it up with a Shadow Ball volley. Sure, manectric avoided most of them, and from the look Max got of its eyes, the confusion had cleared, but Danny liked waiting, wanting his opponent to make a mistake.

A Thunderbolt arced up, but froslass was too fast, dropping straight down to avoid it. She ended up right in front of manectric, blasting it with Icy Wind before weaving around it to avoid the Flamethrower, instead delivering a bite with Ice Fang into the canine's flank, using Protect to avoid most of the Thunderbolt retaliation.

Manectric was breathing heavily as it stopped the Thunderbolt, and it still had froslass right next to it. It tried to Discharge, but froslass rammed a Shadow Ball straight into its chin, and that was too much.

"Great battle," Clemont said as he walked up a minute later, both of them having returned their Pokémon. "Amazing reaction times on that froslass. You must have trained her well."

"I did have help for that," Danny said drily, pointing at Max. "He's got a manectric as well."

Max knew a cue when he heard one, and he sent his own canine out. Bonnie cooed, immediately crouching near her, asking if she could hug the Electric-type and doing so when manectric answered with a fond lick. "She's probably one of his strongest Pokémon," Danny told the others. "Definitely helped him in the Hoenn League."

"She is and she did," Max confirmed. "Missing her in the round of 32 was a huge loss."

"Isn't the Hoenn League one of the bigger Leagues?" Clemont asked. "Biggest in the Home Regions, if I recall?" Max nodded. "And you made it to the round of 32?"

"Youngest to win five matches since our current Grand Champion," Danny added, making Max blush slightly. "He's got a future. I'm just there to ride his coattails."

"You had bad luck in the draw," Max retorted for what felt like the sixteenth time. "Going up against a pro in the round of 128."

"Regardless, even the round of 128 in a tournament that big is impressive," Clemont interrupted the argument. "And the sun has long set by now. How about we go up."

Five minutes later, the four of them stood on the highest observation platform, looking out over Lumiose. In the distance, Max saw the lights of the airport they had arrived at, but in between Prism Tower and the airport, he saw endless streets twisting and turning, and so many different kinds of buildings. It was like looking at three different cities at once. "See that?" Clemont said behind him, and Max turned around to check what the Gym Leader was pointing at. "That's Professor Sycamore's lab in the distance."

"The… Orange building?" Danny asked, allowing Max to locate what they were talking about. "Where does he keep his Pokémon?"

"There's a ranch a few kilometres out of town. Years back, the laboratory was on the edge of town, but as Lumiose grew..." Clemont trailed off, shrugging. "You need to go there, don't you? To set everything up. Want me to take you there tomorrow?"

"Yeah! And you can show clefairy!" Bonnie agreed. "Pleaaaaaase?"

Max grinned. "We'd get lost otherwi-iiiise," he said, a huge yawn interrupting him. His own watch told him it was five to six, meaning he'd been up for over eighteen hours already. "I think it's time to go to the Center."

"You're tired already? It's only six," Bonnie said. "Didn't you sleep on the plane?"

"Couldn't." He'd tried alongside Danny, but the plane's noise movement had been too much. It was sort of strange: he never had problems sleeping on a boat, which Danny did. And he had stuff to think about _._ "I woke up just before midnight Kalos time and haven't slept since."

"Well, going to bed sounds like a good plan. How about we meet at the same place we met today," Clemont said as he called the elevator back up. "At ten?"

"Should be okay," Max told him.

The lift arrived, but Clement blocked the way in. "Well then. Danny, Max, have a good rest, and because I didn't say this earlier: welcome to Kalos."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Name: Clemont  
Age: 15  
Type: Electric  
Location: Lumiose City, Prism Tower  
Signature Pokémon: heliolisk, luxray.  
Typical format: 3v3_

 _Information: The Lumiose Gym Leader may be the youngest of the eighteen Gym Leaders, but the teenager has earned his position, bringing constant solid strategies to battles with challengers and fellow Leaders alike. Like Elesa in Unova and Wattson in Hoenn, his Gym's central location means he faces a lot of challengers every year, handing out the most badges despite being averagely strict in handing them out._

From: Poképedia's Kalos Gym Leader Profiles

* * *

 **Author's Note 2:** Welcome to Kalos indeed. Any echoes of the first XY episode are wholly intentional, but don't expect me to regurgitate the anime plot. It wouldn't be fanfiction otherwise. You'll see what I have planned, eventually.

The boys' current Pokémon, with those on hand right now underlined:  
Max: grovyle, baltoy, manectric, ninjask, clefairy, bagon, poliwag, vulpix, natu.  
Danny: marshtomp, froslass, dusclops, gulpin, aron, skorupi, whismur, magnemite, masquerain.


	2. Starting Out

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Starting Out**

The soft swish of a kadabra Teleporting next to him made Professor Augustine Sycamore interrupt his task of calibrating the Mega Stone synchroniser to a different Mega Stone than the Garchompite he owned. "Already?" he wondered, shooting a look at the clock in the corner of the room. "Strange. It's only eleven." He was expecting someone at half past eleven, and she was normally very punctual. "Thank you," he told the kadabra. "I'll come to the entrance right away."

Discarding his stained lab coat and picking up a cleaner one, Sycamore made his way through the Pokémon laboratory, wondering how he could exhort Serena to just start her journey. It wasn't that he disliked her company; rather the opposite in fact; but it was a shame to see her confidence vanish the moment he broached the subject of her leaving. It was understandable after what happened to her, but understanding did not negate the facts.

In retrospect, he should have been less surprised than he actually was to hear the voice of one of the few others to have the clearance to enter without ringing the proverbial doorbell. He wondered what had brought the local Gym Leader here in this week of repose. He did not recognise the voice that replied, though pitch suggested it was another teenage boy, and not one of the ones Sycamore knew. He nodded to himself, turning into an antechamber that had a spyhole to the foyer.

Clemont was there, as was his sister Bonnie, but the others were unknowns. He couldn't properly see one of them, as the shorter boy with dark blue hair had his back to the wall. The second unknown was the one talking to Clemont. From what Sycamore could see, the boy was about as tall as Clemont, with short, spiky, brown hair and a tanned look you didn't see in Kalos this time of year. There was something familiar about him, but Sycamore couldn't place it just from the side-profile.

He exited the antechamber and walked into the foyer. "It is good to see you again Clemont, Bonnie," Sycamore said, watching everyone turn to him. "And I see you have brought some others with you."

"Hello Professor," Clemont said, smiling, cheeks faintly red from the cold. "I hope you don't mind."

"Nonsense. We haven't seen each other in a while. Why don't you introduce your companions?"

"Of course. Danny, Max, meet Professor Sycamore, the Kalos Pokémon Professor. Professor, these Trainers arrived yesterday from Hoenn and need your help."

"To set everything up," Sycamore finished, walking closer and extending a hand to the taller of the two boys. Danny had the lanky look of someone who had grown a bit in the past few months, but his fairly round face suggested a rather younger age than his height and voice would imply. It was also a face he recognised from a set of pictures sent over earlier that week, of a boy taking care of a torchic and a mudkip the day after Yule. "You wouldn't happen to be Danny Birch, now would you?"

Danny's eyes betrayed his amusement as he took Sycamore's hand. "That's me," said the… twelve year old? Sycamore thought Birch's nephew was that old. "It is good to meet you, Professor. My uncle has told me a lot about you."

"Good or bad?"

The spark of amusement told Sycamore that Danny knew exactly where this was heading. "Mostly good."

"Then you should tell your uncle to stop lying," Sycamore replied, keeping his own mirth inside. "And that makes you Danny's friend Max," he added, addressing the other boy. Now that he could see the boy's face, he saw that the Trainer was wearing glasses; a well-worn flat-topped pair with separate rims for the lenses. His nearly shoulder-length hair was moist with melted snow.

Sycamore knew he had missed something when the formerly serious boy grinned mischievously. From the corner of his eye, he saw Danny do the same. "Yep," the shortest boy said, his voice pitched typically pre-teen boy. "My name's Max Maple. Pleased to meet you Professor Sycamore. What do you study?"

"Right now, I research Mega Evolution," Sycamore told the group. "In fact, I was just calibrating a machine that will allow me to identify what Mega Stone belongs to what Pokémon before you came in." As expected, Clemont's eyes lit up, presumably due to the mention of machinery. "Yes, Clemont, I can show you later"

That caused the Gym Leader to grin sheepishly, and the two Hoenn-born boys to look at him quizzically. "I'm an inventor in my spare time," Clemont told them, causing understanding to dawn. "I'm kinda good at them, too."

"When they don't blow up," Bonnie added with a carefully neutral face. Clemont shot her a betrayed look that caused her to break down in giggles. "C'mon Clemont. You know some of them do."

As the siblings continued a silent war of eyerolls and glares, someone else spoke up. "How does that machine work?" was a question Sycamore had expected, just not from the one who actually asked it. "I thought you wouldn't know which Pokémon a Mega Stone was for unless it had already been discovered," Max continued. "And wouldn't that run into trouble with the Charizardites?"

"Those are some of the problems we have to solve, yes," Sycamore replied, deciding that he'd show them the machine. "How about you have some hot chocolate while I make sure the transfer system is set up, and then we can go to the machine."

Hot chocolate in winter, or a cold drink in summer, was the one constant Sycamore had found in his eight years as Kalos Professor. Pokémon fads rose and fell; fashion went in and out; what was cool one year was lame the next, but drinks… Few Trainers said no to seasonally appropriate drinks, and the Hoenn duo was no exception, nor were Clemont and Bonnie. He led them to the main room of his laboratory, putting a few mugs with milk and cocoa into the microwave before telling them to take a seat once the chocolate milk was done.

Sycamore kept half an ear on the things they talked about, and he was surprised to hear the conversation be steered towards a detailed discussion on Gym Leader philosophies. If his occasional glances were correct, Clemont was both surprised and pleased to be explaining his philosophy to Trainers only two-and-a-half years younger than he was. Bonnie seemed to indulge him, and Danny was an eager listener, but Max's responses were… surprisingly detailed.

Ah, that explained it. Sycamore wondered if Clemont knew he was talking to the son of a Gym Leader, but it was none of his business if Clemont was unaware. He did make a note to ask Birch about it. "I'm mostly done here," he interrupted the conversation. "The rest is an automatic process." He handed two pairs of Hoenn Pokédexes back to their owners. "By the way, Danny, I don't suppose you have your aron on you?"

"I do. Why?"

All of them rose when Sycamore opened another door, waving them through. "The Mega Stone I am using to calibrate the synchroniser is an Aggronite. I will have access to an aggron tomorrow, but I was wondering if aron's energy signature is somehow similar." He shrugged as they passed the door to his in-laboratory greenhouse. "It's only a possibility, but if it works it could speed up testing tremendously, especially for rarer Pokémon lines."

"It's easier to find two or three Pokémon than it is to find a fully evolved one, isn't it Professor?"

"Exactly, Clemont." They arrived at the room with the synchroniser, and all of them filed in around the waist-high cylinder. "You place a Mega Stone on the pedestal, and—" the soft whoosh of kadabra Teleporting in interrupted his explanation. "Has Serena arrived?" The Psychic-type grunted agreement. "Can you lead her here?"

"We're not interrupting something, Professor?" Clemont asked. "We can leave if you have an appointment."

"There's no need Clemont," Sycamore assured the Gym Leader. "Serena is the daughter of an old friend of mine. She comes over every so often with her Fennekin. She is a few months younger than Danny and Max are, but she hasn't left on her jo-"

Again, the sound and sight of teleportation silenced Sycamore as kadabra entered the room, a surprised Serena clasping the Pokémon's arm. "Oh, hello Professor," she said, adjusting her hat. "I wasn't expecting kadabra to Teleport me here."

"It's quite alright. I don't think any of us were," Sycamore replied, alerting Serena to the others in the room. "Serena, these are Bonnie, Danny, Max, and Clemont," he said, listing them from left to right. "Bonnie and Clemont are from Lumiose, while Danny and Max just arrived from far-away Hoenn to travel in the Kalos region."

"Great to meet you!" Serena told all of them, shaking hands but pausing at Clemont. "Weren't you on the news? Earlier this month, about Prism Tower's new lighting system?"

"Yeah, that was me."

"Did you really build it?"

"Well, it's not so much building as it was rewiring the old lighting system and inventing a machine that would detect the bells of the Saint Paque church and then making sure the two are aligned..."

"Sounds to me like you built most of it," Sycamore interjected. He hadn't seen that news broadcast, having been off to Kiloude. Coming back and seeing Prism Tower light up as the clock chimed five had been a marvellous surprise. "If you can do that, I'm sure your inventions will be great with more experience." He cleared his throat, amused at the bashful look on Clemont's face. "Anyway, Danny, can you send out your aron now? I need to hook it up to the synchroniser."

The sound of a pokéball opening was Danny's answer. "Here he is, Professor," the boy said. "Do you need anything else?"

"Just time," Sycamore told them, scratching the aron on his back. Friendly little Pokémon. "Two or three minutes while I figure out where best to put the electrodes."

The five others engaged in some small talk, starting with Clemont's inventions as Sycamore carefully connected the aron to the synchroniser. Danny had trained his Iron Armor Pokémon well, turning around at the smallest indication that Sycamore wanted him to. It wasn't long before he heard data being collected on the computer, and that caught the attention of the others as well. "It doesn't look like they're similar at all," Bonnie observed.

"That's because these are two different graphs, Bonnie," Sycamore told her. "Now, if I put them in the same screen…" He navigated the settings. "There."

With the Garchompite and his garchomp, the two lines had been effectively one, only differing slightly, probably due to innate inaccuracies in the measuring equipment. Hooking one of the lab's chespin up had led to two wildly different lines; a jagged sine wave for the Garchompite to an almost asymptotic curve for chespin. The Aggronite's energy readings resembled an unstable but recurring heartbeat, and aron's readings weren't that different. The amplitude was less, and there was an odd offset that was probably due to improper calibration, but aron's energy reading did resemble the heartbeat-like pattern. "They look similar," Clemont said.

"Yes, and I think we might be on to something," Sycamore concurred, saving the energy readings with a click of his mouse. "I'll have to check tomorrow if the synchroniser is properly calibrated, but I believe this to be a breakthrough."

"What does this mean, Professor?" Serena asked as she adjusted her hat.

He knelt by aron, detaching the electrodes on the Steel-type's body. "It means that we might be able to identify Mega Stones through actual scientific processes, rather than trial and error and educated guesswork." The aron ran back to his trainer, who commended him for helping.

"That's great news!" Serena said. A pokéball opening and a yip announced the presence of her fennekin. "Do you think fennekin will be able to Mega Evolve when she becomes a delphox?"

"Who knows." Sycamore turned the synchroniser off, taking the Aggronite out and putting it back in the box he had been storing it in. He'd put that back in the safe after all of them had left. "There are many Mega Stones we haven't yet identified, and we find new ones every month." He faced the four pre-teens and the one teenager. "But fennekin won't evolve if you don't go out, Serena. You and her need to grow and gain experience to do that. You don't get that staying in Lumiose or going back home to Vaniville."

Serena shrunk a bit, her face downcast, but one of the Hoenn boys took the bait Sycamore had set out. "You haven't left yet? _Why?_ " Max asked, looking and sounding dumbfounded at the very thought. "You're twelve, right?"

When it became clear Serena wasn't going to answer, Sycamore decided to step in. "Serena suffered a major knee injury last March, and although she has recovered fully according to the doctors, she feels she isn't ready yet." He took a step or two towards Serena, her eyes following him. "What was it you said? You were afraid of what could happen if you relapsed?"

Serena nodded, but she didn't speak. The other four all had looks on their faces that spoke of compassion and understanding. Not too surprising: every region mandated a health class, and injuries while travelling were a common topic. Time for the second stage of his hastily formulated plan. "But what if you weren't alone?" Sycamore said slowly. "If you're with someone, then you can help each other if things go wrong."

"But all my friends have left already. They're nowhere near here."

Ah, there it was. A raised eyebrow on Danny's end, followed by a slight inclination of his head towards Serena. Max nodded in response. "If you want to, you can come with us. We've got some experience."

The smirk on Max's face told Sycamore there was more to it than that. Another thing to bring up with Birch. "You do? You're not that much older than I am, are you?"

"Don't forget, it's been half a year since your birthday. Both of them have already competed in the Hoenn League." Serena looked uncertain still. "How about you go have lunch in the city and get to know each other. Maybe you can lead them around Lumiose too. If it doesn't work, then feel free to blame me."

"Alright," Serena said, gaining back some of her confidence as she realised that she was going to be the expert on something at least. "Are you coming too, Bonnie and Clemont?"

Bonnie made to say something, but Clemont shushed her. "I'm afraid not. Dad's coming over to help me with something in the tower in an hour. Maybe we'll have lunch some other day, if that's okay with you."

It was, and everyone left the laboratory in good spirits. Afterwards, Sycamore returned to the storage room, placing a call to his Hoenn colleague. "Birch speak… Ah, hello Augustine. My nephew and his friend have been around, then?"

Sycamore confirmed that, and as the two Professors ran through the familiar but somewhat tedious process of setting everything up so that Pokémon could even be withdrawn when Hoenn slept, they chatted about the two boys that had come to beautiful Kalos. Birch heaped copious praise on both of them, and was not surprised to learn that his nephew had offered to take Serena along. When Sycamore expressed the possibility of the boys being bored at Showcases – Sycamore would be very surprised if Serena wasn't going to be a Pokémon Performer – Birch just laughed.

Apparently, Max's older sister was a high tier Coordinator, and Max had travelled along with her and someone else for two and a half years. Danny's mother had been a Coordinator in her youth as well. Birch told him that the boys probably wouldn't ever be Coordinators, but they would support anyone going that route.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Outside the Sycamore Pokémon Laboratory, the group had just split up. Max watched as Bonnie and Clemont walked off in the direction of Prism Tower, crossing the street with the confidence that came from living somewhere for ages. He turned around, seeing Serena look at both him and Danny. "Can you lead us to a good place to have lunch?" He glanced upwards. "Before we're buried in snow."

The other two also glanced overhead, and saw the same thing Max had: a grey sky filled with snow. There was no snow falling now, but Max would bet good money that wouldn't be the case in fifteen minutes. "There's a nice café further down the street," Serena said, pointing to their left. "It's usually not that busy." She started walking, and the two Hoenn teens followed.

Café Soleil looked nice, with a very sunny and bright interior that stood in stark contrast to the outside grey. As Serena had predicted, it wasn't overly busy: maybe half the tables were occupied, and most of those were families with small children. It was a bit loud, but hardly the worst place Max had ever been to. "Professor Sycamore said something about a knee injury. What happened Serena?" he asked once they had all sat down.

In response, Serena put her hands to her left leg, lowering the thigh sock or whatever it was to her shin, revealing a black knee brace. "We had an indoor sports day back in March. I made a wrong move and some of the tissue in my knee tore." She unclasped the brace, and Max leant in, seeing the scars of surgery on her knee. "It wasn't a full tear, but very nearly so. I could walk by my birthday in July, but it wasn't… fast."

"When you say tissue, you mean ligament?" Danny asked. Serena nodded, and Max saw Danny wince. "The… anterior cruca… cruciate ligament?" He added slowly, trying not to stumble over the words.

"That sounds right," Serena replied equally slowly. "I think I heard that term, but tissue was detailed enough for me. Why?"

"My mother tore that like two and a half years ago, for the second time," Danny said. "She recovered, and she can walk just fine now. I don't think she's even used her crutches in a year."

"You never said it was that bad. You just said your mother had knee problems."

"Pot, meet kettle," Danny replied with a smirk, and Max had to give him that. Then, the waiter came to ask for their orders, and both of them looked at Serena. "You're from Kalos. What is good?"

"Ah, foreign Trainers?" the waiter interrupted. "If I may be so bold, I believe I know just the lunch for you. It is tasty, Kalosian, and very affordable."

Max and Danny shared a look. "Surprise us, then," Danny replied. Serena also ordered, including hot chocolate for the three of them, and the waiter left. "So, Serena, tell us about yourself. Where are you from, what do you want to do… You know."

"Well, I'm from Vaniville Town, which is a tiny village south of here. My mother is a famous rhyhorn racer and because I'm her only child she wanted me to be one as well, but after March… Rhyhorn riders can take quite the tumble, and with my knee?" The three of them shared the same look of pinched pain. "Yeah. I'm just not sure what I want to do. Some days I just want to travel, and some days I want to be a Pokémon Performer, and some days..."

"You're not sure you'll ever get out," Danny finished for her, smiling kindly. Serena seemed surprised by Danny's words, but she returned a shy smile, folding her hands in her lap, or so Max thought. "Right, so the short summary of us is that we're both from Petalburg in Hoenn. It's a decently large city for Hoenn standards, and we've been best friends since we were… Two? Three? Babies?"

"Our parents met when we were young," Max explained for Serena. "We hit it off immediately. I don't know what over, though."

"Annoying your sister?" Danny ventured with a shrug, and Max returned it. It was as good a guess as any. "We're both Trainers, and we're here for the Kalos League, but you probably guessed that already."

"Did you get far in the Hoenn League?"

"Round of 128 for me, round of 32 for Max."

"That's… not very far, is it?"

Max remembered a section from Danny's Trainer's Guide to Kalos. "The Conferences in Hoenn are much bigger. There were over seven hundred participants in the last Ever Grande Conference."

"So it is far?"

"Max was the youngest in _years_ to win five times." Danny fell silent for just a moment, during which Max started to blush under the attention. "And here we see the embarrassed Max in his natural habitat. Pay careful attention to – Hey!"

"I got lucky a few times and you know it," Max replied as he flexed his fingers. "If you hadn't met a top 8 contestant in the round of 128..."

"I would have been crushed in the round of 64, and you won," Danny replied in turn. "You have that whole travel experience thing going for you. I'm just drifting along in your slipstream is all."

"Travel experience thing?" Serena asked.

Danny gave Max a minuscule nod, and Max rolled his eyes. "My parents allowed me to travel with my older sister and two others for twenty months. I didn't have any Pokémon, but you learn a lot just by observing and being near." And the sheer amount of fights Ash and company got in meant he used Pokémon a few times as well. "It probably gave me a leg up on everyone else my age."

"His age, and everyone within two years of us," Danny added drily, ignoring a glare. "And you forgot to mention your sister is a top four Coordinator, Brock is a Kanto Gym Leader, and Ash won the last Sinnoh League. There's no probably about it, Max, and you know it." His point made, Danny turned to Serena. "But yeah, while you and I were at school learning boring stuff like multiplication tables, he was out with Pokémon."

"I still had to learn those too," Max muttered as a waiter walked up with a tray full of plates, bowls, and mugs. "Oh, lunch!"

"Did you say Ash? Ash Ketchum?" Serena asked.

Max waited with his reply until the waiter had placed two bowls of soup in front of Max and Danny, and an omelette in front of Serena. "That's the one," he said, sniffing the soup. "Smells good."

"You travelled with him?" Max gave her a nod. "Wow. You're so lucky. He's really kind and goofy, isn't he."

"Hold on," Danny broke in. "How do you know Ash? Are you some kind of groupie?"

Serena nearly choked on a piece of omelette. "No," she said once her coughing fit was over, voice hoarse. She cleared her throat. "I met him at a summer camp when I was seven, near Pallet Town in Kanto. He was one of the older kids who were supposed to help us younger kids around. Keep us out of trouble."

Max tried to square Ash at nearly twelve with any sense of responsibility. He couldn't. Ash at fourteen had barely had any sense of responsibility, except when someone was after Pokémon, wild or his. "That didn't work out? And why were you in Kanto? It's not exactly next door."

"I spent the summer at my aunt's place in Viridian," Serena told them. "And she sent my cousin and I to the camp for a week. Ash was always cheering us up there by doing funny stuff, but we got in a ton of trouble."

In other words: Max was right. Most of the cheering up was probably unintentional on Ash's part, come to think of it.

By unspoken agreement, they stopped the introductions for lunch. It was a very good lunch, the onion soup filling more than Max expected. The salad was a good dish to accompany it, he felt. He wasn't a chef, and Danny was the better cook between them.

No matter how filling the lunch was, when Serena suggested they should eat some cake as well, both Max and Danny agreed immediately. There was always room for cake.

"Hey, Max?" Danny said after Serena had ordered the cake. "Remember that game the teachers loved? With all the questions?"

"I do." Max wasn't sure where Danny was going with it, though.

"How about we use that to get to know each other better."

Ah, now Max understood, and Serena understood after a few sentences as well. Her teacher had done something similar last year.

Serena went first. "Do you have any other brothers or sisters?"

"No," Max replied, as did Danny. "Just May. I do have some cousins, but the oldest is… Nearly eleven, I think." He took a moment to think about that. "Yeah, Evan's nearly eleven. When is your birthday?"

"July 9th," Serena answered instantly. "When are yours?"

"The fifteenth of March."

"February 16th," Danny said. "Have you ever been outside Kalos? Apart from when you were seven."

"Yes, but I don't remember it. I was two. Have you ever met someone from an Elite Four?"

Max saw that Danny was giving him a pointed look. "Three of the Hoenn Elite Four and the current Hoenn Grand Champion for both of us. All of them in the last three months."

"Technically four," Danny added. "Just had a switch. One of the Gym Leaders we challenged got the job, replacing someone we have also met. What are your hobbies?"

"Playing with fennekin, baking cookies and Poké Puffs," Serena replied. "I used to dance too, but..." A vague gesture downwards followed. "What… Oh, cake!"

More questions, just slower, followed. Bonding over cake and questions wasn't how Max had thought his first full day in Kalos would go, but it was fun. Tasty too. Eventually, they reached the end of their cake and paid, revealing that the prices were indeed pretty low, even after the expected tip. "What are you going to do now?" Serena asked as all of them geared up to head back into the cold outside. "Back to the Pokémon Center?"

"Shopping," Danny said. "Need Holo Casters, need a good map, Pokémon food, shampoo because I forgot mine in Hoenn… Hang on, I have a list somewhere."

As Danny tried to find the piece of paper, Serena turned to Max. "Want me to come along? I can help you with everything."

"Sure!"

 **~~§~~§~~**

The soft alarm went off at twenty-five to midnight, rousing Max from a shallow nap. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Danny was up, reading Max's copy of Pokémon Illustrated. "Did you sleep?" Max asked as he stretched once, shaking sleep from his body.

"Nah. No need for me," Danny replied as he put the magazine down. "It's just you with the jet lag."

Max saw Danny smile. "What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking it's normally me who goes to bed early and you burning the midnight oil."

That was something Max couldn't deny, but he was still getting the flight out of his system, not helped by waking up at six every morning for some reason. "Well, I needed that, so it's fine." He walked over to the window of their third floor room, seeing a nearly abandoned Centrico Plaza covered in a thin layer of snow. "Must have snowed a lot."

"Big flurry about an hour ago," Danny told Max, "but the weatherman said it'd be dry the rest of the night, and nothing tomorrow or the day after."

"Good," Max said. "We'll be able head to the outskirts of Lumiose tomorrow then. Meet up with Serena."

After a long day of lunch, shopping, and some chatter in the Pokémon Center, Serena had decided she wanted to come along if they would allow her to. Danny had said yes immediately, and Max had followed only moments later.

Serena had been surprised at their quick replies. As had her mother when they had called to Vaniville, before she got into grilling them on how they would do everything, where they would go first, what plans they had for Serena's knee… It had been a long interrogation, with Nurse Joy giving them a mildly disapproving look for taking half an hour in the booth.

It was also weird. Max didn't recall Ash being grilled like this.

His stomach grumbling, Max walked to the small table they were using for snacks and drinks, noticing that Danny hadn't eaten all of Nurse Joy's cookies. Somehow. He quickly nabbed one and poured himself some water, sitting down in a chair opposite Danny, remaining silent.

A couple of minutes passed in silence. "What is it?" Danny asked, jolting Max out of thoughts he hadn't even realised he was in. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing?" Max tried, but a knowing smile told him that the excuse wouldn't fly. "It's just… This is my – our – first time not celebrating New Year with family, and I kinda miss them."

"Life of a trainer," Danny said as he rose from his chair, walking over to Max. The older teen offered a hand. The clock read eight to midnight. "It happens, and I'm sure they miss us too."

Max knew that tone. "But?"

"But they're not my only family. We made a new one this year." Danny tapped three Pokéballs in quick succession, causing marshtomp, froslass, and dusclops to come out to their trainer's right. "They're as much my family as everyone in Hoenn. As are you."

"You inveterate sap," Max replied with a roll of his eyes.

"I have no idea what that means. Did you swallow a dictionary again?" The grin took the sting out of Danny's words. "Besides, don't tell me you don't feel the same."

"You know the answer to that," Max said, closing his eyes and shaking his head, smiling. He, too, tapped three Pokéballs, letting out grovyle, manectric, and bagon. The room became a little crowded, but their starters took it upon them to start moving some of the chairs around for more space. "Ash always said his Pokémon were his family, but I never really understood until this year." He glanced down, feeling bagon try to cosy up against his leg. "Knowing about something and experiencing it are very different."

"You even have a baby in your family." Bagon growled. "Well, toddler by now."

Laughter welled up inside Max. "Don't think it works like that for Pokémon."

Danny shrugged. "Maybe. But you do treat him different from the other Pokémon. You're more protective of him in training and stuff like that."

"I wouldn't be a good trainer if I didn't see my Pokémon as individuals, now would I?" Max drawled as he sat down on the cleared floor, allowing bagon and manectric to lay their heads on Max's legs. He started scratching manectric's fur with his left hand as Danny walked away. "Get me a drink too, will ya?"

"You're lazy," Danny shot back without venom, pouring two glasses of orange juice and taking the tray of cookies along as well. They ate some of them as the year ticked away. "Have any resolutions?"

"Be a better trainer?"

"Beyond the obvious like that," Danny said as he pointed at the door. Froslass floated over, flipping the light switch off, leaving them in darkness except for the light from outside; mostly Prism Tower. "Everyone our age has that one."

"Because it's obvious," Max replied as the light from outside changed to a harsh red. He stood up, walking over to the window. "Oh, cool!"

Prism Tower had foregone its normal lighting, instead displaying a countdown – ninety-four, ninety-three, ninety-two – on its sides. "So that's what Clemont was talking about when he said we needed to watch the Tower," Danny said as he placed his glass in the window sill. "So, Max. Are you ready for a new year of adventures?"

"Do you have to ask?"

"No. But it feels right to do that." Both of them laughed as the clock ticked down further, and Max kept his eyes on the countdown until it reached the high twenties, at which point he felt movement to his right. It was Danny, holding his own glass up and extending Max's glass of juice to him. The younger teen took it. "A toast, to a new year."

Glass clinked as Prism Tower erupted into multi-coloured light.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _In Kalos, the law mandates that Pokémon Centers are no more than a day's walk away from each other. In practice, this means there is a Center every ten to fifteen miles in rural areas, and all of them are equipped to host trainers for longer periods of time in winter. It's not uncommon to travel one day, then spend a few days around the next Pokémon Center to check out the local Pokémon and train._

 _From:_ The Trainer's Guide to Kalos (7th edition).

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Introducing a third member of the team, as Max pulls an Ash, it's Serena.

Updates should be regular from here on out. I'll put a note in the ending A/N if I expect problems for a future chapter.


	3. Toxic Ordeals

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Toxic Ordeals**

Jane led Keith out of Lumiose Airport with certainty that probably came from coming there at least once a year. Keith didn't mind: he was still in awe at the size of the airport itself. It had to be as big as some of the towns he visited since he had left home, and it was as busy as the Mauville markets. He wasn't sure how nobody bumped into each other with all the suitcases and bags being dragged or carried through the halls, but he hadn't been sure of that in Mauville Airport either.

And then they stepped outside, and Keith experienced temperatures far below freezing for the first time in his life. "Shit," he spat. "It's like standing in an Icy Wind, only worse." The weather report by the captain of the plane had warned them, but he hadn't been expecting it to be this cold!His breath was visible with every exhale!

"It's colder than normal," Jane told him as she raised the fur-lined hood of her coat. "Kalos isn't warm in winter. They changed the League date to May this year. because of it"

"Huh, so that's why." Keith had been wondering why that had happened. The old guidebook he had read back during the Ever Grande Conference said the Kalos League was twice a year in February and August, but a Kalosian participant passing by had corrected the book. "Jane? Where's your uncle?"

"Right here," boomed a deep voice from behind them, and Keith jumped. Just a tiny bit. Jane didn't, instead turning around and hugging her uncle. "Oh, someone's happy today. Or is it because I'm so warm and big?"

Big was the right word. Jane's uncle Bryan was both tall and wide, and the easy smile on his face made Keith like him instantly. "Good to meet you, sir."

"Can the formalities Keith," the man replied, extending his right hand around Jane. He wasn't wearing gloves, to Keith's surprise, and they shook. "I'm too young to be called sir. Just call me Bryan. How was your flight? Uneventful, I hope?"

"Mostly." There had been that crying baby about an hour in, but that was it. "Jane tells me you live in Lumiose, s… Bryan?"

"I rent an apartment in the east of town, yes. It's not big, but it's close to work. Moved there recently, hope you don't mind boxes."

"You liked the old apartment," Jane said as she stepped back. "It was close to the airport."

Bryan nodded, plunging a hand into his coat. "I liked the apartment, but the landlord wanted to sell, and so I had to leave." A Pokéball appeared in his hand. "It does have a few perks, like our transportation." A xatu appeared on the snowy steps, squawking once in what Keith thought was a greeting. "My neighbour's. We often share Pokémon in our complex. My other neighbour has a garden patch out of town, so all our Grass-types go help there, for example."

All of them placed a hand on the Xatu, and in a flash, they were in a small, homely, and _warm_ living room. It had more than a few boxes stacked up in corners. "You weren't kidding uncle," Jane said as she took her coat off. Keith hastily did the same. "When did you move in?"

"A month back, but work has been killing me. Last week especially. You want something to eat?"

They said yes, and Bryan gave them a short tour in between frying a few sausages and taking some salad out of the fridge. They also met some of Bryan's Pokémon: a cheerful chimecho and a cute small Fire-type called litleo. Keith sent out his new tyrogue, not even five days old, and Jane's plusle completed the Pokémon bunch.

"Which Gyms are you going to hit up?" Bryan wondered as he watched the teenagers eat, nibbling on some crispbread himself. "There's a Gym right here in Lumiose, y'know."

"We know," Jane confirmed. "That's the last one. We're heading to Santalune first. Then Snowbelle and Anistar."

"A counter-clockwise circuit. I see. Strange to go to the colder part of Kalos first."

"Jane wants to find a sneasel," Keith said, barely holding a yawn in. "Man, I know it's past midnight in Hoenn, but it's still light outside. Time zones are weird." Another yawn followed, unrestricted and massive, and Jane followed Keith's example.

"I think you need to head to bed. Keith, you're in the second bedroom, and Jane, you're in my bedroom."

"What about you?" Jane asked as she returned plusle.

"Have you _felt_ this sofa? It's almost as comfortable as my own bed."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny leant against the doorpost as he waited for Max and Serena to join him for breakfast. Serena was in the shower, and whatever Max was doing he didn't know. His best friend had been out of the room before either of the other two had gotten out of bed. Danny could have gone looking, but Max's pack lying on the empty bed had him not worried.

They found Max in the cafeteria, at a table with breakfast for three, two of his Pokémon by his feet eating. Vulpix's tail swayed from side to side, telling Danny the canine liked the food. "Good morning," Max greeted them. "Ready to make it to Plantachid today?"

"You're chipper," Danny remarked as he grabbed the cereal and some milk. "How long have you been awake?"

"Two hours?" Max glanced at the watch he received for Yule. "Close enough. Keith and Jane called at quarter to six, and I heard the Holo Caster vibrate. They're in Lumiose, staying at Jane's uncle. We had a good chat about jet lag too."

"Quarter to six?" Serena said, making a disgusted face. "Ugh, so early. You could have let it go to voice mail."

Max shrugged as Danny passed him the carton of milk. "Forgot that was a thing. It's still new to us. Besides, I was half-awake already. Stuff on my mind."

"Like the Gym?" Serena wondered, drawing chuckles from both of the boys. "Hey, you were talking about it when I went to bed last night. What time did you go to bed anyway? I heard you leave for me, but I didn't hear you come back."

"Sometime later," Max said, and Danny nodded in agreement. "I forgot to check the time."

Danny hadn't forgotten. "Quarter to ten, so about an hour after you went to bed. Someone in the lounge had a weird rattata from Alola. Yes, I took a picture," he added before Serena could ask him. "I'll show you tonight. Battery's empty and the charger is deep inside my pack."

After they had eaten breakfast, and before they were ready to leave – Max had to retrieve some Pokémon from Nurse Joy's care, and Serena was making her first weekly call home – Danny turned on the television to pass the time. He wanted to go watch some cartoons, but the first words he heard caught his attention.

"… attack last night in Laverre. The perpetrators were seen wearing red suit-like clothing and unusual eyewear. Reports of injuries are still coming in, but current information suggests that about a dozen were lightly injured, and that one guardswoman was severely injured when a golbat's Air Slash hit her wrist. The guardswoman was employed by the Pokéball Factory. The company running the Factory declined to comment at this time, saying they would rather be certain of their numbers. However, anonymous employees have mentioned that the thieves were able to access the storage vault. The effects of this on Pokéball prices remains unknown. Meanwhile, on the stock market..."

Danny kept watching the coverage, which included various experts talking about stuff he understood maybe half of, but it was the important half. For once, he was glad one of his old teachers had taken the time she had to talk about current events with Danny's class, back when Team Magma and Aqua were still doing things in Hoenn. It actually helped a lot in understanding what they were talking about and what they were focusing on.

He didn't hear Max re-enter the room, and the first thing he heard from his friend was a swearword that made Danny jolt in surprise. "They injured people? On purpose?"

Danny kept his eyes on the television, which was now showing how the attack had probably happened. "From what you told me, Team Rocket did that all the time, and you had run-ins with Magma and Aqua too. Archie sure seemed to want to hurt us." And Max especially.

Max scoffed. "Bruises and scrapes were the worst of that. Maybe a sprained ankle or a random elemental attack," he said, as if being hit by a Water Gun was normal. "Magma and Aqua were the same, except for..." That one time they tried to change the world's climate with rampaging Legendary Pokémon.

Danny glanced aside, and as he thought, Max looked angry. Fists balled, eyes probably trying to burn a hole in the television, but at least he didn't look as tense as he had done back on Mt. Pyre. "Easy, Max. They'll be caught and put in jail."

"And how many will be hurt before that?" Max shot back venomously, apparently to his own surprise. "Uh, sorry. Didn't mean that."

"Didn't mean what?" Serena said as she closed the door behind her. "Ma… What's that?"

"Attack on the Pokéball Factory in Laverre City," Danny told Serena, unnecessarily as those same words appeared on the screen following a short intro sequence. "Just watch."

It was a muted group that left for the ten mile journey to Plantachid. Serena had been horrified at the actual injuries that had been reported. They went a lot further than Max's report of bruises and scrapes. Two of the guards had been mauled by mightyena, and most of the injured bystanders had light to moderate burns from houndoom keeping them at bay.

The list of injuries didn't sound too unlike the last time Ghosts went rampaging in Hoenn. Thankfully, that appeared to have stopped over Yule, but Max had privately guessed – and Danny had agreed – that it wasn't because the ones doing it had been caught. They would have heard about that somehow.

It was a cold day, and only their well-insulated clothing and constant walking kept them warm enough. They had moved past it now, but the first day of travel, both of the boys had thanked Serena extensively for insisting on getting them proper boots instead of their walking shoes. It was a bit more weight in the pack, but their feet were kept wonderfully warm, no matter the terrain. The shoes wouldn't have been enough, Danny thought as they trudged through the white countryside. They were off-route, meaning more aggressive Pokémon and less people, but the main route led them away from Plantachid towards Camphrier first, and that'd mean another day of travel.

Their destination had just become visible in the distance, maybe two miles away, when Danny heard a metallic sound from behind them. All of them turned around, spotting a honedge making threatening gestures at them.

Froslass and manectric appeared in a flash, before Serena had even made a move for her belt. "Need a hand?" Danny asked.

Max's answer was a small nod as he ordered manectric to unleash a Thunder Wave. The honedge avoided it by melting into shadow, quickly travelling across the ground towards them, but a second quick jolt of electricity forced the Ghost-type out of hiding, into the open.

Honedge came in at manectric and Max, blade glowing red. "Shadow Ball," Danny ordered as Max tapped another Pokéball on his belt. Baltoy came out, not even needing any orders.

Shadow Ball passed by Max's head, over manectric's body and missed honedge, but it did stop the Fury Cutter in its tracks long enough for the canine to move in with a Fire Fang that made the part Steel-type move back, recoiling from the flame. Manectric went after it, still trying to bite.

At a whispered order, froslass moved to the side, raising her hands in the air, white starting to dance around them. If honedge noticed, it wasn't able to do anything about it because manectric was being a terror in keeping it busy between Fire Fangs and Thunder Waves.

To its credit, honedge avoided most of those attacks, only being bitten once.

"Now!"

Max returned manectric mid-leap, right out of the path of the Blizzard froslass had summoned. Honedge had no time to avoid it by going into the shadows, and dodging it was not an option. The attack was too wide and high for that.

One Pokéball later, honedge was now Max's first Kalos Pokémon, and Danny returned froslass as the capsule disappeared, off to Lumiose. "Yes!" Max said, doing a fist pump. "Thanks Danny."

"No problem," Danny replied as they started walking again by unspoken agreement. He saw Max lazily return baltoy as well; thankfully unused. "First Pokémon you battled to capture in a while. Thought you might need the help. You know, after I caught that spritzee without any problems yesterday."

Max's rude gesture only made Danny laugh.

"Isn't battling how you capture most Pokémon?" Serena asked, sounding confused. "That's what they taught us at school. Some might want to join you, but they're the exception."

"Normally, yes. If you're called Max, no," Danny quipped. "This is only his third Pokémon he battled."

"Fourth," Max corrected. "Vulpix too, remember?"

Danny nodded, remembering the lie they had told everyone. He wasn't sure why he hadn't counted her; it wasn't as if he hadn't lied about that a few times in the past month. "Not a big difference. It's your tenth Pokémon, and you've only fought four. I'm on seven fought and three not."

"What about the other six?" Serena wondered. "One's grovyle, sure, but the others?"

"Baltoy was ill, Max nursed it back to health, nincada liked our food, we found bagon's Egg, Max saved clefairy's life, poliwag liked us," Danny listed quickly, before Max could downplay any of it. "Nincada and bunnelby were pretty much the same, come to think of it." Danny's new bunnelby had just wandered into Max and Danny's snack break while exploring two days back. Serena had stayed at the Center to rest her knee, but she'd been told the story.

"Wait a second," Serena said, pulling on their packs to force them to stop. "Saved clefairy's life? You can't just say that and not explain it!"

"It's a long story," Max said with a glare sent Danny's way. "I'll tell you when we're in the Pokémon Center. If you want a short version, Danny is good at that."

"I try," Danny replied, grinning as he gave a short summary of what had happened. Embarrassing Max was always a good way to pass the time, no matter the occasion.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Three days after Max's capture of honedge and them arriving in Plantachid Town, they made their way over to the local Gym. The temperatures had risen to far above freezing during the day, leading to enough slush on the ground to make Danny wish for the snow to come back, but the lack of a piercingly cold wind was welcome.

The Plantachid Poison Gym was located inside an old manor, of which there were apparently quite a few in Kalos, or so Danny had read. This was the first one they had seen up close, and it was as beautiful as a house could be.

The entryway they stepped into looked like a sewer. Just looked, thankfully, and the antechamber they were led to by one of the Gym Trainers ended up being a normal room, which they entered after a short wait outside. "Welcome," a greying man said as he rose from his chair. He wasn't tall, but there was a presence to him that made Danny pay attention anyway. "Welcome to the Plantachid Gym. I am Jean-Luc, the Gym Leader, and I am told that there are two challengers for me today?"

"That's us," Max said, waving a hand in Danny's direction. "I'm Max, and this is Danny. We're from Hoenn."

"Ah, ever-warm Hoenn. I trust the recent weather hasn't provided you with too much discomfort." Both of them shook their heads. "That is good to know. Now, to business." The Gym Leader snapped his fingers, and a hidden door to their right slid open, showing nothing but pitch-black. "This Gym operates differently from other Gyms in Kalos. Here, Trainers must first earn the right to challenge me. Through this door, you will face six of my Gym's Trainers in a one on one battle. Substitutions are not allowed, nor are they allowed between battles. Your Pokémon fights until fainting or forfeit. If a Pokémon faints, the battle is over, and you move on to the next Trainer in line.

"Any Pokémon you lose in the gauntlet, you cannot use against me. I use three Pokémon, and you may use however many you have left. You are allowed substitutions, while I am not. If you win, you earn the Sludge Badge. If you lose, you are allowed one rematch in a week's time under the same rules," the Gym Leader told them. "Now, as I can only battle one of you at a time, which of you will be going first?" Danny stepped forward. "I see. When you are ready, go through that doorway."

After being wished good luck by his companions, Danny moved towards the door, stopping at the doorway. It was actually a black curtain that hid the way on. He hadn't been expecting that. So… normal.

Before he could make his way in, the Gym Leader spoke up once more. "Be warned, young Trainer. Poison wears opponents down until they lose. It is insidious, and many a Trainer has come here, only to fall prey to the slow demise of my Type. For your sake, I hope you are not one of them."

Danny hoped so as well.

The same Gym Trainer who had led them to the antechamber was waiting for Danny inside the hallway beyond the curtain, leading him outside again, to a hidden open-air arena. There, six trainers waited, and after a short repeat of the rules, they started the battles, Danny leading with bunnelby, and his first opponent sending out a gulpin.

Twenty-or-so minutes later, froslass managed to take out a toxicroak with her last bit of strength before succumbing to the poisoning the previous stunky had inflicted on her. It left Danny with three Pokémon to use, after bunnelby and skorupi had also not made it through the back-to-back battles.

He was led back inside through a different door, one that opened into another arena. Like the entryway, the room looked a lot like a sewer, though the arena itself was standard. Serena sat on a bench on the side, fennekin beside her. Max was nowhere to be seen.

"Danny Birch of Petalburg," the Gym Leader intoned, voice carrying across the room, "you have passed the gauntlet with three Pokémon remaining. Choose your first Pokémon, so our battle may be started." He held up a single Pokéball of his own.

As Serena shouted words of encouragement from the side, Danny sent out his first Pokémon, only to see a sight he had seen before, not even a month and a half back. Again, he would be guiding marshtomp through a battle with a nidorina.

Somehow, he expected this battle to be a lot harder than that other one.

Shields sprang into being as Jean-Luc ordered a Poison Sting, but deflecting those was easy for marshtomp. The Water Gun made nidorina move sideways, the movement as small as possible to avoid the water before launching a second burst of the attack. That, too, was stopped by a jet of water, and Danny saw the Gym Leader order something else.

"Mud Shot," Danny said as the nidorina sprang forward, trying to close the gap with marshtomp. The Mud Shot managed to hit her, however, making her stumble and slide, and marshtomp followed it up with a larger Mud Bomb that hit her right in the eyes. "No Water attacks. Move."

Marshtomp went left, but nidorina, despite being blinded, still charged in the right direction, mouth glowing with purple. She lunged for marshtomp, but missed, instead receiving a blast of mud on her leg. That was cause for the Poison-type to retreat, Jean-Luc telling her where to dodge as marshtomp sent mud at his opponent's back.

She was pretty good at dodging, creating a stalemate situation with marshtomp firing Mud Shots and nidorina avoiding all of them. This wasn't going anywhere, and the nidorina looked used to dodging like that. Change of plans, then. "Icy Wind!" A concentrated gust of cold flew across the field, lightly frosting the ground but missing nidorina by a hair. "Again."

Nidorina escaped by Digging into the ground, but ten seconds passed without the Poison-type popping up. Danny and marshtomp scanned the arena, looking for signs of where she could be, but none were visible, except… "Left!"

Marshtomp turned to the small hill that had just popped up, but it was a trap, as nidorina jumped onto the Mud Fish Pokémon's back, forcing them both to the ground. The Poison Pin Pokémon tried to bite marshtomp again, but Danny's starter was flailing around in an attempt to get the nidorina off of him. He landed a few punches, and finally forced her off with a powerful Water Gun to her face. She ran back, he got up, and Danny saw more than a few scratches on his Pokémon's hide, thanks to claws and poisonous spikes. He couldn't tell if marshtomp had been poisoned.

It would be safe to assume he was. "Icy Wind, freeze the arena!"

Nidorina went back underground as marshtomp froze about three quarters of the arena, moving out onto the frozen patch himself, waiting for the nidorina to pop up again.

A sharp crack gave nidorina's position away. "Protect, then Mud Bomb!"

The nidorina slammed into the Protect, being forced back and landing awkwardly on her side, sliding back on the frozen floor. The Mud Bomb hit her in the belly, shattering the layer of ice underneath her as well, sending shards of ice and Pokémon alike flying.

To Danny's surprise, it was enough to knock the nidorina out. Jean-Luc wasted no time replacing her with a beedrill.

Danny signalled that he wanted to replace his Pokémon as well, and he returned marshtomp with muttered thanks, before sending out masquerain and training his Pokédex on beedrill. It was about as heavy as marshtomp, apparently. He could work around that. "Gust!" he ordered as the referee signalled the start of the next fight.

The beedrill took the Gust head-on, powering through it with stingers glowing purple, but it bounced off of masquerain's quick Protect, recovering quickly and zooming off to avoid any attack Danny's Pokémon might think of using.

None came as masquerain moved around the arena, waiting for the beedrill to attack, or at least get in closer.

A set of Poison Stings met a shield of bubbles. The barrier was popped, but Danny saw that only a few stings made it through, making it a lot easier for masquerain to avoid them. "Stun Spore, then Bubble."

It worked perfectly. The Stun Spore forced beedrill up high to avoid the paralytic spores, and masquerain was ready to unleash a stream of bubbles that impacted Jean-Luc's Pokémon., halting it, forcing it away as moisture clung to its abdomen and wings. Danny told masquerain to let it go. There was no need to waste energy chasing it. He was the defender, and that was the way he liked it.

Then beedrill split into five, the copies moving independently of one another, some of them crossing each other's path as they converged on masquerain from all angles, even as Danny's Bug-type tried to flee from them with fierce beats of his wings, pumping them into a powerful glide. "Bubble and Protect!"

The water popped one of the copies, and the green shield removed two more from the equation as they came in with stingers glowing purple, but they were fakes, and that meant…

The moment the Protect fell, the real beedrill was on masquerain, punching its left stinger forward, forcing masquerain to twist in mid-air to avoid the attack. Beedrill was ready for that, and the right stinger didn't miss.

Masquerain fell in the air, catching himself several feet down, an angry welt visible on his lower body. Purple oozed from the welt, making Danny groan. Now he was going to have to be on the offensive. "Stun Spore from high." Masquerain obliged, and beedrill quickly fled back to the other half of the arena. "Now Gust the spores over."

The move didn't work, as beedrill simply flew over the spores, sending a round of Poison Stings that were easily avoided by a spiralling glide, and a Pin Missile that landed glancing hits, before both of them started circling the other in mid-air.

Aron was pants against beedrill, and marshtomp was still tired. Danny needed to make this count. "Get close, Bubble."

The bubbles landed on beedrill, who took them in exchange for trying to land another Poison Jab, but masquerain folded his wings in time, causing a miss, and a flinch on masquerain's end. The poison was progressing fast, but Danny had an idea. "More bubbles, cover beedrill!"

The Eyeball Pokémon moved in close and started spewing bubbles all over his opponent, who was still hindered by earlier moisture on his wings and body. The bee didn't dodge, instead delivering a vicious pair of Poison Jabs, landing direct hits, but it was covered nearly fully in bubble remnants, even as masquerain fell.

Danny didn't waste a moment to return masquerain and to send marshtomp out again, ordering an Icy Wind, and his starter delivered.

Beedrill tried to dodge, but it was only half successful, and its right wing and stinger ended up frozen, the Poison Bee Pokémon falling to the ground, only to be returned by Jean-Luc before the Water Gun could land. Danny let out a sigh of relief; if that hadn't worked, he would have been in trouble.

Jean-Luc's last Pokémon was an arbok, and again, Danny signalled to return marshtomp, sending aron out this time. The more rest he could give his starter, the better.

The ground underneath arbok was slightly wet, but not frozen any longer, which didn't hinder aron or arbok anything. Probably. "Wait for an attack," Danny ordered as the referee gave the signal to start.

He didn't have to wait long. A large Mud Bomb soared through the air towards aron, splashing on a Protect, and a second one missed because aron went right when arbok aimed left. Danny wasn't sure why he assumed arbok had known nothing at range, but he was feeling a bit stupid. "Dig! Like we practised."

Aron vanished from sight, and arbok started moving around in the arena instead, trying to minimise the chances of being hit by the attack.

Aron gave no signal of coming up until he actually did, head glowing in an Iron Head that they had practised the day before. Arbok slid away at the last second, making the hit glancing, but some of the dirt aron threw up landed in arbok's left eye as it tried to circle back around. "Get it!"

Danny's Pokémon, moving faster than anyone who didn't have an aron would expect, avoided a wild lunge by the arbok, and scratched a Metal Claw across the exposed underbelly of the snake, using Protect immediately after to block a Mud Bomb he saw coming, and then using his mouth to try and bite through the arbok's skin.

The Cobra Pokémon was none too pleased with that, and it slammed its tail on aron, which distracted Danny's Pokémon long enough for arbok to land a Fire Fang, judging by the cry aron let out.

The cry was pained, but it was also something else, and the reason for that became clear immediate. White light exploded from where aron was hidden from Danny's sight by the snake, and arbok slid away quickly, leaving Danny with full view of his evolving aron.

Lairon was a lot bigger than aron, with more spikes on and holes in its armour to boot. His feet had actual claws now, instead of just the stumps that still worked for Metal Claw, and each leg held some kind of metal band. Danny also knew it was about twice as heavy as aron, and a lot more sturdy as well. He had read up on lairon before. "Way to go! Iron Head!"

One thing lairon wasn't, was fast. Probably faster than aron, but that wasn't hard. The slakoth Max's Dad had used to fight aron had been faster than Danny's Pokémon. Still, at double the weight it previously was, the run was audible in the arena, thuds announcing every time lairon hit the ground with his feet.

Arbok, wisely, got out of the way, going underground just to avoid lairon, Danny thought. He didn't know how heavy arbok was, but trying to bash a head into lairon would probably lead to a headache or worse. "Just wait," he told lairon.

Lairon roared… defiantly? Danny didn't know, but the armoured Pokémon turned around until he was looking straight at Danny, roared again, and reared up once, coming down with an audible crash.

Was that a glint at his feet?

Lairon reared up again, and this time, both of his front legs glowed white, and when they came down, the arena _shook_.

Danny watched, amazed, as the Earthquake rattled the arena, thankfully not reaching to Danny. It did a number on the floor, cracks appearing, and arbok, who had been underground, was forced out, launching itself out of the ground not too far away from lairon, looking battered just from the one attack. It landed awkwardly, barely avoiding going down nose-first.

Then lairon rammed himself into the arbok, Iron Head glowing, and the snake went flying. It didn't get up again.

Cautiously, Danny approached his new lairon. The cracks on the field could hide nasty falls, but the ground felt stable enough as he passed through, kneeling by his happy evolved Pokémon. "You did it," Danny said, hugging the lairon carefully. "Any other tricks you learned?"

Danny's Pokémon shook his head before licking his trainer's hand in the same way he had done as an aron, grumbling contentedly when the human ran a hand across his unarmoured belly.

Jean-Luc had traversed the field as well, holding out a hand for Danny to shake. "You fought well, and even without that timely evolution, I would have found myself hard-pressed to be the victor.," he admitted, inclining his head. "The Sludge Badge will be yours after the battle with your companion." The Gym Leader cast a glance aside as Danny idly returned lairon. "Nidoqueen, be a dear and fix the arena."

Nidoqueen started to work, glowing gold with Earth Power, as the Gym Leader and Danny moved out of the arena. Jean-Luc went to a Gym Trainer Danny only now noticed – he was certain the woman hadn't been there when he entered – and Danny walked over to Serena and fennekin.

"Congratulations, you did it!" Serena said, doing a little shuffle on the spot as Danny came closer. Fennekin yipped happily as Danny approached, circling him once. "That was a great battle to watch, too." She sat back down on the bench, Danny dropping down next to her. "And you only lost one Pokémon too. That's something you never did before, right?"

"No," Danny confirmed, just now realising that that was actually the case. "Guess I'm tied with Max on that now. Not winning with one Pokémon left, I mean."

"Do you have to make everything a competition?"

"No, but it's fun that way." Both of them grinned, lapsing into silence as they waited for Max to arrive indoors.

To no surprise at all, Max also won a Sludge Badge, using the advantage he gained from the gauntlet – he had only lost two Pokémon – to defeat the Gym Leader. Serena, now that she could, asked Danny a lot of questions about battling, and he did his best to answer. When he wasn't distracted by Max's antics in battle, that was.

When did he come up with that throw-the-sheath move to knock swalot out anyway? It wasn't even a real move and honedge had been with them for two days only!

Before long, Jean-Luc, Serena, Max, and Danny were all together in the antechamber they had been in before. Both boys were holding a badge in their hands; a purple triangle with white bones crossing each other at the bottom. "Hoenn acquitted itself well today," Jean-Luc said as he sat back down in his leather chair. "Both of you have a good arsenal of stratagems, and adapt well to circumstances. I wish you the best of luck with your Gym challenge, and I expect to see you at the Lumiose Conference sometime in the coming two years."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Darius,_

 _Your fundraising operation is permissible. Select three others and depart for Location everything you find, and avoid local police. A low profile is essential, pursuant to directive XI._

 _Play it smart and you might be in line for a promotion if this is a success. I am lacking a competent second-in-command after Alex landed himself in jail for battery._

 _Scientist Aliana_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** More Hoenn kids arriving in Kalos, first captures of the region, and the first badge, with a bit of a gimmick to boot.

Oh, and a bunch of villains acting up. They, too, are getting started early this time.


	4. Budding Bonds

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Budding Bonds**

Ash dismounted from his charizard, his old friend having flown him from Viridian to the hills nearby Pewter in less than two hours instead of probably two or three days walking, if he didn't get lost in the Viridian Forest again. His face was cold from flying through the barely freezing weather, but it wasn't as bad as flying on another Pokémon would have been.

A prod in his back reminded him that pikachu had wanted nothing of flying in the open, instead staying in Ash's backpack, surrounded by clothing and a blanket to keep him warm. Ash undid the zip carefully, and pikachu jumped out with a happy cry, landing on the ground, and hurrying to the other human around a moment later. "Hey Ash," the Pewter City Gym Leader greeted him. "I wasn't expecting you to come by air. You must be freezing."

"Nah," Ash replied, scratching charizard between the wings. "Charizard kept me warm, and this is some of my Sinnoh gear. I've felt worse."

"I can imagine," Brock said as he walked up, and the two shook hands before the Gym Leader initiated a quick one-armed hug. "This is pretty cold," he said as he let go, "but Roark was on the phone yesterday saying Sinnoh was nearly glacial. Makes you wonder if the local articuno is acting up."

Ash smirked. "Well, Noland's friend isn't, or we'd be standing in snow." The ground looked like it might be a bit frozen, but a thaw had chased away the snow a few days before. "Maybe I should drop by there for some practice before the Champion's League..."

"I'm sure he'll welcome you," Brock replied. "All of us Gym Leaders are rooting for you, even the ones you never met, and the Frontier Brains are as well. Regional pride." He watched as Ash returned charizard. "Why did you ask to meet me here? The Gym is warmer, and I can easily set aside some time for us to spar. More if you're willing to have an audience."

"Later," Ash told Brock. "I want some practice on other terrain, too."

"Ah, environmental hazards? You expect that to come up in the Champion's League?" Ash shrugged in response to Brock's words. "Well, that's not hard for me. Not here. Choose a Pokémon." Absol came out, causing Brock to whistle appreciatively. "I should have known. Not with how much you talked about her last week. Did you get it to work already?"

Ash put a hand in absol's fur, fingers lightly scratching the quadruped's head. "Not yet, but we've only been training for it since Yule. Everyone tells me it takes time." He fingered the Mega Ring in one of his coat pockets. "Anyway, how about it?"

"Let's get back first. Graveler can be a bit… inaccurate at times."

Ash thought it a good idea to get back after that warning.

Twenty minutes later, Ash and Brock returned their tired Pokémon, looking at the damage they had brought to the hillside. "Dig and Rock Blast? How did you come up with that?"

"Forrest did," Brock said, and the pride was nearly palpable. "A few days after we kicked Team Rocket out of Pewter Gym. Someone had a tropius with Energy Ball, and Forrest improvised the move. He told me about it when I came back. It's a nasty trick. As you noticed."

"Did I ever." They started their walk back to Pewter. "You're coming to the tournament, right?"

"All of it. Misty too. You didn't think we'd pass on seeing one of our best friends compete at the highest level?" he added when Ash turned to him, surprised. "Not when it's so close, and we can hand the Gym over to others for the time."

"The Inspection Agency let you do that?"

"The Inspection Agency has no problems with Forrest, just my parents," Brock reminded Ash. "And that has been a struggle, but we've finally come to a bit of an understanding."

"The Gym is yours, and they don't have anything to do with it?"

"Pretty much." Even pikachu chuckled at that. "May is also coming over, she told me, but Max isn't?"

"Kalos is a long way away, and he's got his own stuff going on." A lot of it, if Ash understood correctly, including picking up a new trainer to travel with. "He'll be watching anyway, and I'm sure he'll call too."

They slid down a slope before Brock replied. "I was hoping he'd come to Kanto. Just to see how he's raising his Pokémon."

"That's going well, if you ask me," Ash said. "You know how he did, right?"

"Yep. Came up when talking with his friend. Impressive results, and it didn't sound like he had your brand of beginner's luck."

"Beginner's luck? I resent that!"

"You mean resemble," Brock corrected him as suburban Pewter came into view. "Kingler, muk, tauros… Half the Kanto badges, come to think of it. Including mine."

Ash's pikachu, walking beside them, made a sound that was far too much like held-back laughter. "Traitor," Ash muttered darkly. "But I suppose you're right. As usual."

"You make it easy for me, Ash."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Serena carefully grabbed the mug of hot cocoa, making sure not to spill the overly full contents on her jumper or the blanket covering her legs. A small sip removed the danger of spilling, but her mouth did feel the heat. It was okay, and delicious as well.

One of her travel partners threw himself onto the sofa as well, a mug of his own on the table in front of them. Serena had only known the two boys for a bit over two weeks, but it felt like longer already. "Is Max not coming? I thought the spars were over."

Danny threw an arm over the back of the sofa. "He found someone else to fight. He still has Pokémon left, he said."

Serena saw Danny roll his eyes, something the older boy had done a lot when Max was involved. She didn't really understand it, but asking about it felt weird. "Well, you used only three Pokémon each, but we were out there for an hour." She tucked the blanket in a little better. "Isn't he cold?"

"He doesn't care about that," Danny replied as he tested the heat of his drink. It was still too hot. "Barely normally, and not when he's in this mood."

"What was up with that anyway?" Serena wondered. Max had seemed alright when they got out of bed, about three hours back, but he'd turned sour after picking up Pokéballs from Nurse Joy just after breakfast. "He looked annoyed."

"We'll find out," Danny told Serena confidently. She wasn't sure why _he_ was so sure, and he seemed to pick up on that. "Take it from someone who's travelled with him for ni.. ten months. It'll come up. It's just how he is."

Serena nodded, warming her hands on the mug once again. The wind was nasty cold, and her gloves hadn't been much help. Just getting back inside earlier had been almost painfully great. The heat prickling her cheeks and hands had felt – still felt – so good.

A hand came down on the sofa, near her feet, and Serena looked back at the boy wanting her attention. "Anything you want to do later with fennekin?" Danny asked. "This afternoon, I mean."

"I still don't have any idea for a Showcase," Serena admitted with a sigh. She had decided to become a Pokémon Performer not long after leaving Lumiose, thanks to a talk with Max and his sister. "I've been trying to think of something for a week, but most of them involve dancing, and the rest is stupid."

Danny tilted his head. "Why are you ignoring the dancing? You can still dance, right?"

Serena placed a hand on her left knee, feeling the plastic underneath the blanket and her Knee Socks. "My knee?"

"Then do a slow dance?" Danny said before he took a long drink from his mug.

Serena went still, words echoing in her head. Of course! Dancing was not just heels and fast-paced dancing. "You're a genius. Of course I can still dance."

"Just need to be careful, right?" Danny asked before she could say it, his smirk ruined by a chocolate moustache. "Y'know, Pokémon Showcases sound interesting with how they have Trainer and Pokémon work together."

"Contests don't have that, right?" Serena ventured, Danny confirming it a moment later. "That just seems so weird. We live with Pokémon, right? Why not perform with them?"

"I'll pass on battling with my Pokémon."

Laughter filled Serena as she imagined either boy trying to do just that. "Danny, use Tackle!" she mock-ordered, trying to imitate their deeper voices.

The boy at the other end of the sofa wiggled his fingers near her feet. "I can use Tickle," he teased, prompting Serena to pull her feet in. "We're just not as sturdy as Pokémon." Both of them shot a look at Serena's knee. "Thank arceus for Pokémon being so sturdy," Danny muttered.

"What do you mean?" Serena immediately got the feeling that hadn't been meant for her as Danny's easy-going smile vanished in an instant. She waited patiently for his answer, but none was coming up. "Danny?"

"Remember me saying I didn't catch masquerain?" Danny said, looking oddly serious. Serena nodded. "We stopped a poacher from taking him and his swarm. Max fought the poacher, I freed the masquerain. Max was beating him with poliwag and bagon, his quilava on its last legs." Danny turned away, looking into his mug, shoulders slumped. "Quilava tried to Fire Blast Max. With Blaze active.

The idea that someone would attack a human with such an attack was… Bleh. It was terrible. "He wasn't hit, right?"

"No. Baltoy and bagon blocked it, then bagon went berserk on the quilava. Dragon's rage." Serena made to say something, but Danny stopped her. "Baltoy was out for one reason only. Protection."

That shocked Serena, and Danny made a sound she could only describe as hollow. "Exactly," he said. "I wouldn't have thought of that. Nobody else I know would have, except Max, May, and Ash. And Brock," he added, and Serena took a moment to remember that he was the other one to travel with Max and Ash. "It's crazy that he feels the need to do it."

Serena didn't really know how to reply to that, but it had reminded her of something else. "So that's why Max sent out baltoy when he caught honedge?"

The smile was borderline fake. "Exactly. It's second nature to him."

Nothing more was said until Max returned inside, one mug of hot chocolate later, cheeks the colour of ripe apples, but face still thunderous.

A quick chat revealed why. Serena hadn't known there had been Ghost and Dark-type attacks in Hoenn, and that people were inciting those Pokémon to harm people. Serena knew from the Laverre Pokéball Factory robbery that Max really hated people who used Pokémon like that. It explained why he was so angry, and he apologised for letting it affect them, so all was good.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Route 7 was beautiful, even in winter and without the flowers that it was famous for. Instead, everything was white as far as the eye could see after the day before had been snow, snow, snow, and more snow. With temperatures below freezing, the snow wouldn't melt any time soon either.

Serena liked snow, and this winter was just… There was so much of it. She didn't remember any other winter with this much snow this early in winter. It was great!

She bent down, scooping snow into her gloved hand, and looked around. Max was a bit far away, off near the river. Some blue was darting around his feet and in and out of the river. Too far away, and poliwag might stop her plan anyway. She glanced left. Danny had his back to her, kneeling near a tree. Perfect. "Hey, Danny!" Serena called out.

She saw him start to turn his head, and lobbed her snowball perfectly.

The spluttering was music to her ears, as was the annoyed shouting as she threw two more snowballs.

It wasn't much of a fight. Danny's snowballs were either very small or they fell apart. Serena didn't even need to dodge, but Danny started doing that after the fifth projectile hit him. Tried to, anyway.

Cold! Snow! In her neck! Serena whirled around on her right foot, bumping into someone and landing on her side in the snow. A green coat rolled away. Laughter came from behind her – Danny – as she pushed herself up with her arms. There was snow in her hair, and it dripped down into her neck. Yikes!

"Always watch your back," Max lectured, even wagging a finger, smirking as he did it. He had gotten up a lot faster than Serena had, but both his hands were in view, and poliwag was off to his side, literally dancing with happiness. _"Always."_

Serena made a half-turn, taking two steps back as well, and saw Danny about ten feet away, snow cradled in his arms. He dropped it the moment Serena saw him. "You're no fun," the snowy-haired boy told his friend. "And will someone teach me how to make good snowballs?"

"Maybe later," Max said as he sent out his vulpix. "Let's practice some with your fennekin, Serena."

It turned out the snow here would actually melt as fennekin practised her Flame Charge on vulpix, but after half an hour, fennekin was pooped, causing Serena to beg off of more practice. Max understood, and she took a seat on the snowy bank, listening to the sounds of nature and training as fennekin lazed beside her after melting most of the snow away. She buried her right hand in her starter's fur, feeling it move slightly up and down with the fox's calm breathing.

Suddenly, vulpix walked up from her left, pressing her nose against Serena's left arm, yipping softly. "Oh?" Serena said, lifting her arm, and vulpix immediately, and carefully, jumped onto her lap. Weight settled on her legs, but Serena was used to having fennekin in her lap, so it didn't matter too much. Her hand went to the curled-up Pokémon, who wasn't all that warm. "It's too cold for you, isn't it?" she asked.

She took the sleepy sound vulpix made as agreement.

Serena wasn't sure how long she sat there, two hands in Pokémon fur, the sound of rushing water calming her and the occasional crackle from magnemite or manectric reminding her that the two others were at it still.

Crackling vanished and crunching announced someone walking up, just as Serena thought she should really move a bit. The sun's reflection in the river blinded Serena for a second, but she had seen Danny's red coat, and the taller boy sat down next to her. "Is that Max's vulpix? I thought he returned her."

Serena scratched vulpix underneath her chin, getting an almost skitty-like purr out of the fox. "Guess he didn't. She's been here since I sat down." She turned to Danny as best she could while having a Pokémon on her lap. "We're heading back?"

"Sunset is close, and we have to walk two miles."

She had no idea it was that late, but Danny would. He kept time for them. With a quick flick of her right hand, she returned fennekin to her Pokéball, before trying to lift vulpix out of her lap. The Pokémon was having none of that, digging paws into Serena's leg to stay put. Despite herself, Serena felt a smile appear on her face. "Lazy Pokémon," she said, shaking her head before she heard more crunching from behind. "Hey Max, your vulpix needs warming up, I think. She's all cold."

"What are you talking about? I returned vulpix after we were… What the hell?"

A Pokéball opened as Serena twisted her upper body around, and she saw Max's vulpix appear by his feet. She looked at the vulpix in her lap. "But… If that's your vulpix, then… whose vulpix is this?"

"A wild one?" Danny wondered as vulpix jumped off of Serena's lap, padding over to Max's vulpix. The two vulpines sniffed and barked a few times, and then seemed to accept as they sat down side by side "They look really similar. Almost identical."

"They do," Max agreed as Serena finally got up, stomping her feet a few times to get the snow off her clothes. "It's heavier than my vulpix, though," he added as he lifted the wild vulpix into his arms. "And colder too. You weren't kidding."

"Take it to the Center for Nurse Joy?"

"Yeah," Max agreed with Danny. "It might be ill or something." He put the vulpix back down. "Do you want to come with us? We'll get someone to make sure you're healthy as you can be."

The vulpix didn't reply, instead walking over to Serena and looking up at her. "It's a good idea. You are a bit cold," she agreed with Max. "It's better to be safe and healthy."

The short bark sounded like agreement. "Let's get moving. I want to be inside before dark," Danny told them.

They didn't make it before dark because some children pelted them with snowballs when they passed by one of the farms in the area, and neither Max nor Serena were going to let them get away with that. A furious battle ensued, and Serena was certain vulpix would be gone by the end of it. However, by the time it got too dark to properly throw snowballs, vulpix was still there, and it also appeared to have avoided all the snowballs being thrown around.

Unlike Danny, who, again, was looking very white as Max broke out a torch to guide them to the Center.

When they returned to the Center, both boys left their pokéballs with her before leaving elsewhere. Danny wanted to take a hot shower, not that Serena could blame him, and Max said he wanted to call someone. Serena wasn't sure who he wanted to call – it was the middle of the night in Hoenn and he'd talked to Professor Sycamore that morning – but sure. She stepped up to the desk, delivered the pokéballs to a smiling Nurse Joy, and turned back around, intent on walking over to see who Max was talking to.

She hadn't even taken a step away from the desk when the wigglytuff made a few harsh sounds, startling her. When the nurse's assistant Pokémon came into view again, Serena saw it point an accusing arm at the vulpix. "Tuff, tuff, wiggly!"

"Are you saying that's not a vulpix?" Nurse Joy asked her Pokémon, and wigglytuff confirmed that as it kept eyes on the vulpix. "Easy, wigglytuff. I'm sure it didn't mean anything by being a vulpix instead of its natural form." She lifted the red-brown Pokémon, holding its face level with her own. "It's better if you change to your natural form. Some kinds of Pokémon have bad reactions to certain medicine, and you might be hiding a wound now."

Vulpix squirmed in Nurse Joy's hands, who put it down on the desk. Immediately, vulpix turned around, looking at Serena, head tilted slightly. "Are you asking me what to do?" Serena wondered, and the reply – a soft bark – confirmed that. "I think you should change back," she told vulpix after a short pause. "It'll be easier fo… whoa!"

Vulpix didn't wait for Serena to finish, dissolving into an oval-shaped ball of… something. It looked like it was moving very fast, but it lasted only a second. When it was over, a grey Pokémon sat upright on the desk. The tuft of hair on its head was deep red, as were its eyebrows and the tips of its limbs.

Serena had no idea what Pokémon it was, but her Pokédex did, and she fished it out of her pocket on auto-pilot instinct.

 _Zorua, the Tricky Fox Pokémon. It changes into the form of others to surprise them, or to protect themselves from danger._

"See, that wasn't so hard," Nurse Joy told the zorua. "Come on. We'll get you all healthy."

Zorua waited until Serena gave another nod to pad onto the tray. Nurse Joy and wigglytuff walked out of sight, leaving the teen standing at the desk, struck dumb. A Pokémon using illusions to disguise itself? She hadn't even known such a Pokémon existed! She thought it was just ditto that could transform itself, and some Ghosts that could hide themselves.

Taking a seat in the nearest chair, she checked some of the data on zorua in the Pokédex. Max found her there, leaning over the chair's back to see what she was looking at. "Zorua? Why are you checking that Pokémon out?"

"The wild vulpix was one."

"Oh." Serena craned her head around, seeing Max be only mildly surprised. "That makes a lot of sense. It was very cold for a Fire-type." He plopped down two chairs away. "Are zorua heavier than vulpix? On average."

Serena checked the two Pokémon on her Pokédex. "A bit," she informed Max. "Why?"

"The illusions don't work for weight or type," Max muttered, ignoring Serena's question. "So it's purely for looks." He looked up, seeing Serena look at him, her eyebrows raised. "Sorry. I was just wondering if there are limits for zorua. Like size or wings."

Serena smiled, That was Max, always thinking and wondering. Even if she'd only known him for two weeks, that was clear to anyone who'd spent more than a day with him. "We could ask it when Nurse Joy is done."

"That's a plan," Max said, rising from his chair. "C'mon, let's go find Danny before he eats our dinner."

With how much Danny – and Max too – had been eating, Serena didn't doubt that the third of their group was capable of doing just that.

Later, once the rush of trainers returning from exploring had passed, all three of them went back to the front desk to retrieve their Pokémon. Wigglytuff was there, guarding three trays of pokéballs, and a zorua lazing atop one of them. Serena saw it raise its head as they walked up, but otherwise, the fox didn't move until the pink Pokémon prodded It so the tray could be lifted.

Serena grasped fennekin's pokéball, the last on the tray, but when she wanted to lift it, a paw touched the top of her hand. "What is it, zorua?" she wondered as she clipped the ball on her belt. "You can come with us if you want."

The zorua barked once before suddenly jumping down to the floor, then jumping up to Serena's belt. It tagged one of the empty pokéballs on there, vanishing in white light.

The silence lasted until zorua released itself from the ball, letting out a satisfied bark as it rubbed up against Serena's left calf. Its new trainer looked at the boys – Danny looked as surprised as Serena felt, and Max didn't meet her eyes, instead looking at her feet – as she tried to make sense of the situation. "Did zorua just..."

"Yeah," Max replied, still not looking at her. "Never had that happen." Serena glanced down as well, seeing a smug zorua sit at her feet. "Congratulations on your first catch."

"Not her first catch," Danny chimed in, smirking wickedly. "Zorua did all the work."

"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to," Max said. "We counted baltoy as a catch."

"You actually threw a pokéball that time."

"True." Max walked away, as did Danny, but Serena stayed put, still frozen in surprise. "Serena? You coming?"

That, and a nudge against her calf, shook her into action. "Sure," she said, noticing zorua walking beside her, just like fennekin sometimes did. "It's just..."

"Pokémon have a way of surprising everyone. Don't sweat it," Danny told her. "Even my uncle still gets surprised."

Serena wasn't sure what to make of that, but she shrugged it off. Why think too much when she had a new zorua to get to know.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The day after zorua gave himself a new trainer, the three humans had a mission, as Danny had called it dramatically. His uncle had asked the boys to catch him common Kalos Pokémon, and the area around their Route 7 Pokémon Center had a good amount of them.

Max had left pretty much at dawn, going to search far north, close to the Palais Lane area. Serena was tagging along with Danny, searching closer to the Center, but they still had about an hour's walk before they reached an area that didn't have farms everywhere. "Now what?" Serena asked, making a circle in the snow with the tip of her boot. "Just walk around?"

"I have a better idea," Danny told her as he opened the cloth bag he had taken with him. A few moments later, he took some objects – Pokéblocks, Serena remembered – out. "We can put these out and wait out of sight."

Serena noticed movement in the corner of her eye. A blue-flowered flabébé floated maybe twenty feet away, and it noticed them as well. For a moment, they looked at each other, frozen, but then, the flabébé started floating away.

Danny ran after it, Serena following him before he shouted at her. They gained quickly on the flower-like Pokémon, who tried to head for trees close to them.

A strong throw and froslass appearing cut that path off, and flabébé turned to them, bristling with some sparkling dust. It advanced on them with the attack trailing behind, but fennekin let herself out, sending an Ember to force the flabébé back, and Serena waited for froslass to blast it with some ice.

That didn't happen. Froslass did keep flabébé from getting away, but nothing more. "Danny?"

"Y'know, why don't you catch that Pokémon. I'll keep it here, you fight it." He was smiling at her, the… the _boy._ "See what you can do when it's not us you're up against."

She let out a growl that would have annoyed her mother a lot. "Fine," she bit out. "Fennekin, Flame Charge!"

Snow melted as her fox started running straight at the Fairy-type, but when she jumped, it just floated sideways. Fennekin landed fine, turned quickly, and jumped back, but the same thing happened.

The flabébé flew off, summoning two large leaves and sending them both at fennekin from a distance. "Dodge!"

The Razor Leaves impacted the ground a few feet in front of Serena, throwing a bit of snow over her boots, but at least fennekin had avoided them. Flabébé was sparking again, flying towards her starter with very visible dust behind her. The white all around made it so easy to see the attack. "Ember it!"

Quick-moving balls of flame hit before fennekin's opponent moved away, stopping the attack. "Flame Charge again!" Serena ordered, hoping to use her advantage like Max told her he did.

The Flame Charge missed again, but fennekin didn't give up, turning around and keeping the flame around herself going strong. She ran in again, when suddenly, a voice came from Serena's left. "Jump right a bit," Danny told fennekin.

This time, the flabébé was hit, and it went to the ground immediately, fennekin landing on top of it. "Scratch!" Serena ordered, not that she really needed to. Snowflakes were thrown up as the two tussled, but there was only one winner, and that was her fennekin. The Fire-type jumped away after biting and scratching the Fairy-type. It tried to fly off, but it could barely get off the ground. Serena went for a borrowed pokéball, but the moment she touched one, one also touched flabébé.

One capture and disappearing pokéball later, Serena knelt by the little fox before lifting her up and hugging her. "You did great!" she told her starter, using her left thumb to scratch an ear. "That Flame Charge practice really worked out."

"It did," Danny said as a beam of red told Serena he returned froslass. "And a good Ember to stop that attack too."

"Why did you say to jump right?" Serena wondered as fennekin jumped back down, creating a short Flame Charge to melt the snow underneath her feet. "I mean, it worked, but I don't get it."

"It was dodging to its own left every time," Danny said. "It was a pattern, and patterns can be exploited."

"Oh."

"Don't worry," Danny told her, his voice cheery. "Everyone's different in how they battle, but also in how they look at battles. This is just something I notice." He looked up at the sky, and Serena followed, seeing only blue to the north. "It comes with experience. When we first started out, Max always pointed stuff out to me, and he told me the same thing, and Ash told him and May the same thing before that."

"Just like practising how to ride a rhyhorn," Serena said softly, thinking back to the time when a class trip had been to her mother's rhyhorn racing club. Most of her classmates hadn't had a lot of success staying on the Pokémon, to say the least, and Serena hadn't understood it back then.

"Probably," Danny said. "I've never ridden a Pokémon, and I'm not sure about Max. Maybe you can teach us." He stretched out, hopping on one foot when he overbalanced and nearly fell. Serena chuckled. "Now, let's go find another Pokémon."

Serena agreed with that, returning fennekin and following Danny.

They found a hungry fletchling that didn't even need to be battled to be captured after it ate a whole Pokéblock in a minute, but the other two Pokémon they found didn't want to be captured. Serena tried, but a bunnelby went underground and didn't come up after two minutes of waiting, while Danny threw three Pokémon at a powerful pyroar that melted a ton of snow and forced dusclops to shield them multiple times just to not be hurt from the flames. They fled after Danny's bunnelby, froslass, and even marshtomp fell.

Thankfully, that pyroar didn't chase them. That could have been bad.

They had still sent more Pokémon to Danny's uncle than Max had. Max told them he had tried to capture a furfrou, failing after the furfrou suddenly blinded him and grovyle with a Flash on a snowy field. He did capture a Pokémon, but he wanted to keep the espurr for himself. Serena didn't really understand why he'd want that Pokémon – espurr were seriously creepy – but Max was different.

And that was perfectly okay.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

LUMIOSE CITY – _Yesterday local time, during a press conference at his laboratory, Kalos Pokémon Professor Sycamore announced a breakthrough in the new field of Mega Evolution. Along with his assistants, he developed a machine that would allow for easy matching of new Mega Stones with Pokémon. Already he has identified two new kinds of Mega Stones: Houndoominite and Pinsirite._

From: Hoenn Express, January 15th.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** More new Pokémon and the first time we're seeing stuff from Serena's point of view. And a Pokémon catching itself - something I hadn't planned. It was going to be more like Serena's eevee, but before I could get there, this idea popped in my head.

Quick linguistic note: I use British English, and my use of torch refers to a flashlight, not the flame-on-a-stick version.


	5. Beautiful Battle

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Beautiful Battle**

Not for the first time that day, Max was thankful that Kalos placed signs to lead people towards towns and attractions. It was the day after he had caught his new espurr, and there was a fog covering the land that did not clear out. It was nearly noon, for jirachi's sake, and it felt like they were walking inside an endless sea of grey and white. There were times they couldn't even see the nearby river, despite the Route and the water never being very far away from each other.

Luckily, the signs had led them to the grand building in front of them without a problem. It looked every bit as impressive as the pictures Max had seen, and he heard both Danny and Serena mutter awe-filled words as they took in the beauty of the building, despite the shitty weather. Max would have joined them, except he had spotted the person he was looking out for.

"Hello Danny, Max, Serena," the Lumiose Gym Leader greeted them as he stepped into view from behind the snow-covered entrance arch, wearing different clothing than the overalls Max had seen him in before. Smart-looking trousers, dress shirt underneath his open coat… It was a lot more classy. "It's so good to see you again. I trust you've been well?"

"Yeah," Max said, although it was more about how they had all been. Max and Clemont had talked two days before, after Professor Sycamore had told Max the Gym Leader wanted to talk. "One badge, and we've caught a few Pokémon."

The Gym Leader reached them, cocking his head sideways just a bit as he stopped. "Oh? Kalos Pokémon?"

"Honedge and espurr for me, bunnelby and spritzee for Danny. Even Serena has a new Pokémon." Max grinned. "You can probably guess which."

"Hang on," Danny interjected loudly. Max looked left, seeing his best friend switching looks between the travelling group and Clemont. "Were you waiting for us, Clemont? How did you know we wer..." Understanding dawned on his face, and Max bit his smile away. "Max? Did you tell him we'd be walking down Route 7? Is that why you wanted to go today, despite this…" he trailed off, hand waving at the fog around them.

"Technically, I told Max I'd be here today," Clemont shared. "But he was my co-conspirator in this." He turned sideways, extending an arm. "Anyway. Danny, Max, allow me to introduce you to something unique to Kalos. The Battle Chateau."

Serena let out a soft gasp. "This is the Battle Chateau? I never would have recognised it! It looks so…"

"Different from all the normal pictures," Clemont finished for her. "The weather's not doing it any favours. Come on, let's go in. I'll introduce you."

Only when inside did Max notice how watery cold it was outside, the heat immediately seeping into his clothes. He quickly undid his coat and took off his gloves. A pair of zips and the pop of metal unclasping to his sides told him Serena and Danny had also undone their coats.

Meanwhile, Clemont walked up to the maid waiting for them at the end of the entrance hall. "Hello Duke Clemont and guests. The Battle Chateau welcomes you with open arms."

Clemont inclined his head in return to the maid's bow and words, and Max hastily emulated him. "Thank you. These are..."

A door opening interrupted Clemont's introduction as all of them looked at the source of the sound. A grey-haired, monocled, _aristocratic,_ man walked out. "Ah, this is your location, Duke Clemont," the man said in a measured and posh voice. "And I see you have found your guests. Are they two potential débutants and one débutante to our honoured society?"

Max knew what the man was talking about. The Battle Chateau was a place where Trainers could meet and battle in a tradition dating back hundreds of years. "I would like that," he said.

"As would I," Danny agreed beside him.

"I think I'll pass," said Serena. Max saw a minute movement on the man's face, asking for an explanation. "I've only recently started, and I'm not a very good battler."

"Knowing one's limits is admirable," the man told them, smiling gently. "I am Duke Turner, the seneschal of the Battle Chateau. May I inquire who you are?" The trio told them. "Well, well. It is my honour to welcome guests from the far-away Hoenn region. Please, follow me."

After a short detour to a cloakroom to store their coats and packs, Duke Turner led them through the spacious hallways of the manor. "Here at the Chateau, all Trainers are referred to as knights," he told the group. "Each and every knight has a title bestowed upon them that is based on the grand total of their Battle Chateau victories."

"There are six possible ranks," Clemont added, taking over the explanation. "If you are admitted, you gain the rank of Baron, then Viscount, Earl, Marquis, Duke, and finally there is Grand Duke."

"Each noble rank requires a certain amount of victories to be attained. Baron, for example, requires but one win, but to reach Viscount, one needs ten wins against other Barons," Duke Turner resumed talking. "Bear in mind that but one challenge can be issued per day, and that challengers are restricted to challenging someone of the same noble rank. The sole exception is Grand Duke, which can only be held by one person at a time, and thus the holder can be challenged by any Duke, any number of times. Tradition does demand that three other challenges must be made before a Duke can challenge the Grand Duke again. Our current Grand Duchess is Diantha, Champion of the Kalos region."

Serena gasped. " _The_ Diantha? Are you challenging her, Clemont?"

Clemont put a hand behind his head, scratching his skull. "I'm not nearly good enough to beat her. I'm happy being a Duke."

"The Grand Duchess is not in attendance today," Duke Turner told them. "Instead, Duke Clemont challenged yours truly." They reached a pair of closed doors, elegant and majestic. "We have reached the sitting room. Whenever you visit the Battle Chateau, this is where you will choose an adversary to battle."

The doors opened, revealing a large sitting room with about a dozen and a half people in attendance, sitting, standing, or lounging somewhere in the chamber. To their left, huge glass windows told Max the fog hadn't lifted.

Clemont led the three of them to a pair of settees on the internal balcony. "Liking the Battle Chateau so far?" he asked as they sat down. "There are two more new challengers here today; travellers like you. You'll be fighting to attain the Baron rank after lunch." Max heard someone stomping up the stairs. "Ah, there they are."

Max and Danny craned their heads around, seeing a boy and girl walk up, and the latter caught Max's attention for how much she stood out in the Chateau's elegant setting. Black hair with pink highlights, a metal-studded leather jacket, shoes with huge soles that explained the stomping... She looked really out of place.

She noticed Max looking, and smirked confidently. "Well. The other newcomers have arrived." The two stopped walking, the girl crossing her arms and the boy looking on. "Name's Deirdre, and this is my brother Isaac," she said, nodding her head sideways at the blond with spiky hair. "We're from Ecruteak in Johto."

"You're siblings?" Danny asked, sounding incredulous. "You don't look anything like each other."

"Step-siblings, technically," Isaac spoke up, voice gravelly. He coughed harshly, trying to cough his lungs up from the sound of it. "Sorry," he wheezed out, sounding pitiful enough for Max to actually feel sorry for him. Whatever the reason was.

Deirdre produced something from an inner pocket, handing it to a red-faced Isaac. The boy immediately popped it into his mouth. "Yeah, he's right," she said, drawing their attention again. "His father up and left when he was three, my mother died in childbirth, and the remaining parents married when we were six." She held up a hand, stopping Max from speaking up. "No need. His mother is my mother in every way. Anyway, which of you three are participating?"

Danny stood up, Max following him a moment later. "That'd be us," Danny told Deirdre and Isaac. "I'm Danny, he's Max. We're from Petalburg in Hoenn."

"Well, that explains the tan," Deirdre said drily. Max looked down at his hands, seeing a regular skin. He'd been way more tanned in August. "Here, compare."

The hand that Deirdre held out was almost pasty white in comparison. "Point," Max conceded. "So… You travelled together in Johto?"

Deirdre's reply was stopped by the ringing of a bell. "The luncheon is now ready. Please avail yourself of the fine food prepared by our chef in the great hall," Duke Turner said, and Max heard a door opening below them. "We will reconvene one hour hence, when we will discover who of our newcomers will be inducted into our grand society."

Clemont led the group to the hall, and Max felt his jaw drop when he entered. The sitting room had been classy, obviously high society. This was… opulent. Paintings larger than Max hung on the walls, various glittering chandeliers provided light for the room, and every chair looked like it had been hand-made by the best artisans. The cloth was embroidered with intricate patterns, probably hiding tables that cost more than the entire Maple living room combined. "Whoa..."

"It's something, isn't it," Clemont said. "Come, let's eat."

A large table at one end of the hall held all the food, and various Trainers were milling around it, taking food as maids and butlers looked on. Whenever a plate was empty, it was immediately taken away, replaced soon after with a new, full, plate of food. Half of the things on display, Max didn't even know, but he duly picked some of them out, following Clemont and Serena to a nearby table that could seat seven, a carafe and several glasses already present.

Deirdre and Isaac took a bit longer to join them, Deirdre talking to one of the butlers, but neither of them offered an explanation as they sat down and joined in on the silent eating. A minute or two later, a maid walked by, placing a glass mug filled with light-brown tea in front of Isaac, and giving a bow as she retreated.

"Tea with a lot of honey," Deirdre stated suddenly, making Max nearly spill his bite of some unknown Kalos fish dish. "Isaac had pharyngitis recently, and his throat is still recovering. Tea and honey's good for that."

Max nodded in understanding, and the rest of lunch passed without too much small talk. Good food did that.

Duke Turner met them at the exit, after they had all finished their lunch. "Ah, excellent. If you could follow me," he told them. All of them fell in line, following the Duke to the cloakroom, where everyone donned their coats. Deirdre's, to Max's mild surprise, wasn't some long black trench coat, though the blue was so dark it would be black in bad lighting. "Our first battle will be Isaac against Max, followed by Danny against Deirdre, and ending with Clemont versus yours truly. I trust this is agreeable."

Ten minutes later, Isaac and Max touched pokéballs in the centre of the field before walking off to their own side. After checking the state of the arena, he had decided to go with his poliwag, who would feel right at home in the wet conditions outside and with their new strategy, while Isaac sent out a camerupt.

Max suddenly felt very glad he hadn't picked grovyle or honedge or even clefairy.

Poliwag started with a Rain Dance, and icy cold droplets started pelting the two combatants. The camerupt seemed to sniff disdainfully before glowing gold, cracks appearing in the arena floor.

The Earth Power erupted from underneath, nearly engulfing poliwag, but the tadpole had moved, spraying water on the ground near herself to slide away, getting back up with a little help of her tail. "Water Pulse."

The globe splashed on a pillar of stone that camerupt called up from underground, but poliwag had waddled just far enough to launch a second one and not have it be blocked by the rock. Camerupt hastily threw up a second pillar, but that was fine. "Time to move."

Poliwag slid away, rapidly adjusting her path when another Earth Power came her way, and repeated the earlier pattern of two Water Pulses being blocked by two pillars before scooting away. The pillars left Max with clear sight of the camerupt through the gap in between the inner two, but Isaac couldn't really see poliwag when she was behind the pillars.

"Lob a Water Pulse," Max said, and poliwag obliged. Camerupt was too slow in dodging, Isaac too slow to counter the attack, and the angry roar was music to Max's ears. "Time to move again."

Camerupt lifted one of its paws like before, but this time, the stomp down just seemed more powerful. The reason for that was that it called up a ton of four foot high pillars around the field. Poliwag bumped into one of them close to Max, but didn't look hurt. "Po-poli."

Max saw why poliwag was annoyed. The pillars were close enough together that sliding wasn't an option, but far enough away from each other to let either camerupt or Isaac keep sight. Clever. "Water Gun."

Poliwag found a clear line of attack, slightly off the centre, and shot a Water Gun at camerupt at the same moment as it sent an Earth Power her way.

Both attacks hit, golden-yellow blocking poliwag from sight. Cries told Max she had been sent flying, and she landed with a muted thump and splash. Her eyes were closed, but there was movement, so she wasn't knocked out yet.

Sudden eye contact between Pokémon and Trainer sent a shudder through Max.

The explosion of white light violently swept the incoming Stone Edge aside, and poliwag got up, turning towards the camerupt. Arms grew. Legs expanded. The tail started vanishing as the energy exploded again, blocking an Earth Power snaking across the field. It receded a moment later, revealing a taller Pokémon done evolving. "Alright! Water Gun!"

Poliwhirl sprang on top of one of the nearby pillars using her newly developed legs, and then started jumping from rock to rock, closing in on camerupt's position. The Fire-Ground hybrid collapsed all the pillars near itself, but by then, Max's Pokémon had already jumped high into the air, granting herself a clear shot as she launched a powerful stream of water right at the camerupt.

Surprisingly, the camerupt wasn't knocked out, retaliating with a Magnitude that collapsed a few of the remaining pillars, but poliwhirl rolled with the attack, avoiding the worst of the attack and sending a Water Pulse down the field in response.

Finally, camerupt sank through its knees, and although it tried to get back up at its Trainer's urging, a Bubblebeam – that one was new – made it collapse fully.

"That's it. Poliwhirl is the winning Pokémon," the referee – one of the maids who had been in attendance during lunch – announced as the onlookers applauded. "Our next battle will be between Danny and Deirdre, following a brief intermission to repair the field."

Max cast a glance aside as he walked the edge of the arena. It was pretty damaged, with plenty of debris and the occasional crack present. Poliwhirl made her way over to him as well, stepping over all the rocks with ease she didn't have twenty minutes before.

He stopped walking as he met up with Isaac, and the two bowed to one another. "Thank you very much," they chorused. "Great work with the sliding," Max told poliwhirl, kneeling in front of his Pokémon as Isaac went up the stairs. "We might need to practice that some more now, though."

"Whirl, po-poli," poliwhirl told him in return, voice as cheery as it had been as a poliwag. "Whirl."

"Every time, Max," Danny said from behind him. Max resisted the urge to jump up, poliwhirl's last word having tipped him off. "Every time it matters, you step up to the box with crazy strategies I wouldn't even dream of, let alone making them work."

The rumbling of ground being rearranged behind him told Max the arena was being repaired. "Gotta keep you on your toes," he said, straightening up, turning around, and finding not just Danny, but also Deirdre, Isaac, and Serena standing on various levels of the stairs up to the terrace. "Camerupt was a sorta good counter, but I think I lucked out on types today."

Isaac nodded slowly, smiling somewhat fake. "Had hoped for regular land Pokémon. Camerupt is sturdy."

"I noticed," Max said drily as he returned poliwhirl. "Danny, Deirdre, good luck."

Danny and Deirdre's match turned out to be a very close fought affair in the air. Froslass and weezing pulled no punches, but movement in three directions made it hard to land attacks, even before Hail and Smokescreens were added to the mix. Danny seemed like he was going to end up taking it after he had froslass take advantage of Smokescreen to summon a Blizzard, but Deirdre had a final trick up her sleeve with Destiny Bond, knocking froslass out as well.

"In the event of a draw," Duke Turner said from his perch up high, "the knights of the Chateau are the final arbiters on whether either applicant can join our society." He looked at where Max and Clemont were standing. "Please be aware that you are not yet officially inducted, Max, and thus you do not have a vote."

Max nodded in understanding. It made sense. "I believe I will abstain from voting for Danny," Clemont whispered as they waited for Danny and Deirdre to perform the post-battle ritual. "I introduced you. Doesn't feel right."

Both Danny and Deirdre were admitted into the society with solid majorities, leaving Isaac as the only one not admitted. Following a short explanation on the duration until he could issue another challenge to be judged worthy – a week, same as most Gyms – Duke Turner and Clemont took the field. Both of them wore the red capes that indicated their rank of Duke.

Clemont selected a heliolisk, reminding Max of his Gym Battle against Wattson. Before he could really wonder what Pokémon would fit the aristocrat, Duke Turner let his Pokémon out, and a dragonair materialised, floating a foot about the ground. Beside him, he heard a Pokédex read out the dragon's description, and a glance revealed it was Isaac who had wanted to look it up.

The moment the battle started, dragonair flew upwards, bell glowing as it subtly manipulated the weather in some way. Max didn't catch which way as a bright glow alerted him to heliolisk's opening move, which seemingly was to turn the arena around him yellow. "What the hell is that?" Deirdre exclaimed.

"Electric Terrain," a woman supplied from behind them as dragonair shot a Water Pulse at heliolisk. "Powers up Electric-type moves." Heliolisk lit his tail with Dragon-type green, deflecting the ball right back, not that dragonair was anywhere near its original position.

Max saw what she meant with powering up Electric-type moves, as heliolisk opened its frills to unleash a Parabolic Charge. Various tendrils of electricity jumped from the ground to the sphere, which split into four blasts seeking to connect.

None did, dragonair contorting itself to avoid the two closer blasts. Its bell glowed bright white for a second as it did, and with a lash of its tail, dragonair dove towards heliolisk. It pulled away halfway through the dive, but the Hidden Power kept going, forcing a drop and roll from heliolisk, who quickly scrambled back into, and then through, the centre of the electrified area, and nearly paid for it as an Ice Beam narrowly missed.

The air was a lot clearer, Max noticed. The fog hadn't vanished, but it was diminished. That had probably been dragonair's doing, he mused as five blasts of Parabolic Charge narrowly missed the dragon. It did require dragonair to nearly tie itself into a knot, and heliolisk made use of the awkward position by summoning the last remnants of the Electric Terrain and unleashing a mighty bolt of Thunder.

The hit was solid, but dragonair immediately fired back after the attack ended, unleashing a pair of orange-red globes of fire, followed by another dive into Hidden Power while heliolisk leapt over the second ball of flame.

The Hidden Power was unavoidable, but heliolisk laid down another round of Electric Terrain, slightly larger than the one before, pretty much instantly after the Hidden Power had washed over it. Dragonair retreated, bell glowing again, and this time, Max definitely saw the fog retreat.

"They are fast," Danny said as a Parabolic Charge blast was blocked by flame. "And that dragonair is ridiculous. That's fou.. five different types now?" he corrected as dragonair released a Dragon Pulse. "If you count Hidden Power."

"Six," Max corrected as he saw dragonair's tail glow silver in response to a Signal Beam sent its way. The Iron Tail parted the Bug-type attack, leaving dragonair unaffected. "This might take a..."

Max's words died as heliolisk jumped up, grabbing dragonair in the middle and letting gravity drag them down. Clemont's Pokémon added electricity to the mix, while dragonair used its free and green-glowing tail to slam into heliolisk, aiming for the legs in particular.

The landing was harsh on both of them, but dragonair recovered first, zipping away before launching a quick Water Pulse at the Electric-type. It was a direct hit.

And heliolisk let out a happy cry. Murmuring spread across the terrace, but Max already knew what had happened. This heliolisk had Dry Skin, and the deflection earlier had been to hide that until just the right moment.

Dragonair called forth a Sunny Day, parting the clouds above as surely as it had diminished the mist, but it came at the cost of taking three Parabolic Charge blasts, further rejuvenating heliolisk as the energy returned to sender.

What followed was Clemont showing why exactly he was a Gym Leader. Systematically, but rapidly, he ordered heliolisk around with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel, either forcing the dragon down or into an attack, while also electrifying the entire arena and not using the electricity from it to ensure that the next time heliolisk wrestled dragonair to the ground was going to be painful for Duke Turner's Pokémon.

It was only a matter of time until the difference in energy made itself known, and dragonair slipped up on one jolt, hovering slightly too close to the ground. Heliolisk closed the distance, grabbing its opponent with mouth and arms, using Thunder on the way down as well.

"A splendid battle," Duke Turner said after the trainers had completed the post-battle ritual – and after heliolisk had drained the electric field covering the arena. "Now, let us go back inside to honour our newest knights."

Every knight present donned their ceremonial capes, revealing that nearly all of those present were Barons and Viscounts. Only three were neither white nor blue. One female Earl – Earless? - wore green, and the two Dukes kept wearing red. "I am pleased to announce that Danny from Petalburg City, Deirdre from Ecruteak City, and Max from Petalburg City are awarded the noble title of Baron," Duke Turner intoned. "Congratulations to all of you."

A short round of polite clapping followed, and the three of them bowed in thanks.

After a round of personal congratulations from various knights, Max and Danny made their way over to Serena, who had taken a seat off to the side, Danny's camera in her lap. "Plenty of pictures for home," she told them as they sat down. Danny got back up immediately, probably because he sat on the cape. Max, having dealt with a smaller cape in Rota before, had remembered to lift the cape as he sat down. "So, how does it feel, being a Baron?"

"Quite alright, thank you for asking," Danny said in as posh a tone as he could muster. The other two chuckled. "Dad is going to take period clothing to the airport when we come back, count on it."

It was something Max thought possible, but as he made to reply, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned his head left, to the door leading to the great hall, and saw a… a flicker just above it. He blinked in surprise, but that also made the thing vanish. He shook his head. Weird. Perhaps he really did need a bit more sleep if he was starting to see things.

Then Danny poking him jolted his attention back to the three of them, as well as Clemont, who had walked up in the meantime. "Congratulations you two, but there's one more thing you need to do," the Gym Leader informed them.

Max did not like that smirk, and he was proven right when it turned out to be paperwork. Ugh. Standard stuff, luckily, but still paperwork.

Danny walked off to Clemont, and Max went to Deirdre after they were both done. "Baroness Deirdre."

"Baron Max." The pair shared a smile. "This cape is so not my colour."

"Then you'll have to fight for it," Max returned. "Perhaps Marquis-yellow would fit more." Her glare lasted all of two seconds. "You came here from the Pokémon Center west of here, right? How long did it take you to get here today?"

Deirdre smirked. "Two seconds." She tapped her cape near her belt. "Kadabra brought us here. Probably four hours by foot, but we did that yesterday."

Max checked the clock. It was closer to three, and sunset was in less than four hours, he knew that. Night-time walks in the fog. Great. That sounded like a recipe for disaster, and the way back was also a three hour walk.

"We can trade," Deirdre interrupted his thoughts. "Kadabra Teleports all of us back, then tomorrow, Isaac and I Teleport to the Pokémon Center _you_ came from." She held out a hand. "Deal?"

A minor bit of mind reading in exchange for hours saved? "Deal."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Kalos's Route 9 was strange. You could only pass it by foot if you were an expert hiker, or if you rode a Pokémon, usually rhyhorn. The insulated location gave it, and the Ambrette Town through Cyllage Town stretch to a lesser degree, its own weather of sorts as well. On the other side of the mountains lining Route 9's north, the same wintry conditions of the past weeks held: around freezing, wet from fog, icy rain, or snow, with the occasional cutting wind. Weather Max didn't overly like, Danny was still not used to, and Serena's knee hated. No, this was much better. It was was overcast, humid from the sea's proximity, but otherwise devoid of snow or rain and far above freezing.

This was the second day they were out here, after the half-day before had yielded no Pokémon that Danny wanted. Ground-types aplenty, sure, but Danny was out for a helioptile, and Clemont had pointed them to Route 9 as the best place to catch one.

Hopefully, they could find one today. Max wasn't certain he wanted to sit through a third day of riding a rhyhorn. Danny seemed too excited to notice, and Serena had been on and off rhyhorn since she was as tall as one, but the bumpy ride wasn't to Max's liking. At all. Maybe he was going about riding the rhyhorn all wrong, but even with the saddle and protective clothing, his thighs hurt, and his shoulders ached as well.

At least he had convinced the others to go visit the Glittering Cave today. It sounded like an interesting place to see. Danny had been all for it, but Serena had been harder to convince, though she refused to say why.

Max was very glad Ash wasn't with them. With Ash, 'interesting place' had translated into 'rampaging Pokémon' too often for his liking.

They were about an hour into riding the rhyhorn, about a third of the way to the Glittering Cave, when Danny spotted a helioptile looking out from behind a rock. He jumped off, scaring the small Pokémon, who scrambled off, and Danny started the pursuit, sending out magnemite as well.

"I'll stay with the rhyhorn," Serena told Max as they dismounted a lot more calmly. Max stretched once, trying to get rid of the stiffness in his muscles. "You go after him. Make sure he doesn't break an arm," she added with a look around. The terrain wasn't as bad as it was a mile or two back, but there were plenty of rocks and cracks to cause a fall.

"Serena?" Max said, causing the girl to stop her turn. "Catch." Serena caught the pokéball Max threw her way, and looked at it, confused. "In case of powerful wild Pokémon."

Baltoy safely in Serena's hands, Max started the chase, sending out ninjask to lead him to Danny, who had vanished from sight after probably going down the path Max saw to their right.

Heading to the downward path showed a rock-filled area that wouldn't look out of place in a Rock-type Gym, and in the distance, he saw Danny's red coat clamber over one of the rocks, magnemite visible as a ball of yellow trying to land attacks. "Wait up!" Max shouted.

Danny didn't. Not that Max had expected anything else.

It took about five minutes of careful manoeuvring to catch up with his friend. More than once, his muscles didn't do what Max wanted them to, and he resolved to not get on a rhyhorn ever again after today, if he could help it. As it was, he arrived just in time to see magnemite Tackle the helioptile into a nearby rock, followed by a pokéball that hit it right on the nose. "Nice throw."

"Thanks," Danny said, keeping his eyes on the capsule until the familiar ping announced a successful capture. "There we go. Gotcha. Thanks magnemite!" The pokéball vanished, and Danny turned around, magnemite hovering next to him. "Took you a bit to catch up."

"Not everyone can just jump off rhyhorns," Max muttered, before noticing something on Danny's face. "At least I didn't fall. You might want to clean that."

Danny brought his hand to his cheekbone, and saw it come away with a bit of blood and dirt on it. "Huh. It doesn't hurt."

"Yet," Max corrected as marshtomp came out of his pokéball. "Adrenalin from the chase." Jirachi knew he had a lot of experience with that.

Two hours later, they turned a corner on the path to the Glittering Cave, and found two more rhyhorn standing there in a sort of pen. Apparently, someone else had gone to the cave, and left before they had, which surprised Max. They had left just after dawn, which meant the two in there had probably left while it was still dark out.

All of them dismounted, the rhyhorn happily walking off to a small stream nearby after Danny fed each of them a pokéblock, and Max looked at the path ahead. It was fairly narrow, and almost carved into the rocks around them, but it was well-kept, and a few lamps hung overhead, providing light for those walking here in the dark.

Luckily for them, it was closer to lunchtime than to dusk, and they reached the entrance to the cave just as clouds were gathering up above, ready to drop rain down on them.

As Max walked into the cave, he heard a voice echo from down the path. "How long do we have to stay here? This is boring," a nasal male voice complained from an unseen corner..

Max froze in place. "'s long as we need to," came a gravelly-voiced reply. "Now shut up 'n watch the path. We don't want to be interrupted."

The others had stopped as well, Max noticed as he looked around. Serena looked confused, and made to speak, but Danny made a quick gesture for silence.

The conversation had reminded Max of Team Rocket planning something to capture a Pokémon, and although this didn't sound like them at all, he had a bad feeling about whatever was waiting for them inside the cave. They couldn't see up ahead much, despite the occasional lamp: there was a ninety degree turn about ten feet ahead of Max.

Max told the others to move back, and he followed as silently as he could, taking care to not let his footsteps echo. He unclipped one pokéball, and, for the second time that day, handed baltoy to Serena. "What's going on?" Serena wondered, thankfully whispering.

"Poachers, I think," Danny replied. "Or thieves. Fossil thieves? Call the police?

It was possible. Glittering Cave was known for its fossils, and Max vaguely recalled news about a find about three weeks back. " _We_ need to stop them," Max decided. "Police won't be here in time." He wanted to sigh, but thought better of it. "Serena, call the police anyway with my Holo Caster, then use baltoy to protect us. Focus on making sure we don't get hit by stray attacks."

"I can help," she hissed. "Fennekin can attack them."

"How good are you at Double Battles?" Max shot back, seeing Serena's face fall. "Argue _later._ Just do this. Please," he added as an afterthought.

Serena still looked annoyed with him, but she accepted the offered Holo Caster. "Okay. I'll come as soon as I can."

She left them, moving towards where the rhyhorn were. Max shared a look with Danny. "Really wish we didn't need to," Danny said, selecting two pokéballs. "Marshtomp and spritzee are fine inside, right?"

Max nodded, mentally switching out honedge for espurr in who he was going to send out. "Just warn me when spritzee does her thing. Only have one female Pokémon on me."

"Gotcha."

It was a good thing Danny had already sent marshtomp out ahead of time, because one of the poachers was watching the entrance, and a dark green shield blocked a lighter green spray of something. Three more popping sounds came from the room ahead of them, and Max quickly released grovyle and espurr, directing his starter to the bisharp advancing on them. Marshtomp intercepted a second Pokémon that was trying to get close, and he, too, went into hand to hand with the opponent.

Espurr, after laying a Light Screen ahead of them, started using her range to her advantage, annoying a golbat that was trying to dive bomb grovyle with whatever rocky ammunition she could launch at the flyer, using Confusion as a substitute for knowing Stone Edge or something.

"Little help here," Danny said on behalf of his spritzee, who was fighting a croagunk. "Spritzee, go Attract golbat."

The croagunk fighting Danny's Fairy-type tried to get a Poison Jab in, lunging forward, but a quick Confusion-aided boost saved spritzee, and sent the dual-type falling flat on its face. It rolled to avoid two short bursts of Psybeam, but then it reached a wall. "Get it!" Max ordered.

Espurr needed no further guidance, and Max decided to ignore the cries of pain coming from his left, instead focusing on the battle ahead of them. He saw spritzee trying to hit golbat with Attract, high above the other two fights, and the starters were fighting a pair of Unova Pokémon: marshtomp was trying to stop a scraggy from reaching the Light Screen barrier, while grovyle fought a bladed Pokémon for the second time in the last two months.

Max couldn't see the battle all that well in the diminished lights, but judging by grovyle's aggressive movements, he was winning or at least attacking. "Espurr, go help marshtomp, listen to Danny." Footsteps behind them announced Serena's arrival. "Police coming?"

"Ten minutes," Serena said, and Max silently corrected that to fifteen minutes. "They didn't believe me at first, but they agreed to send someone at least." She sent baltoy out, who immediately reinforced the Light Screen. "Hey, isn't that the same guys from Laverre?"

"Think so," Danny agreed before ordering marshtomp to Dig and espurr to fire at will.

Max took a good look at the humans beyond the battle, and he did see the red suits and some kind of headgear. Then spirtzee's cry commanded his attention, and he saw Danny's Pokémon crash into the ground, close to bisharp and grovyle. "Grovyle, protect spritzee!"

The Grass-type did that by forcing bisharp back, slashing low with X-Scissors that continually nearly missed the taller Pokémon's legs. The moment spritzee went airborne again, the grovyle raised his guard again, waiting to find real openings instead of just pushing bisharp back.

A rumbling sound to his right made Max flinch, making himself small on instinct, but it was just baltoy blocking something with a large slab of rock. It dropped immediately after, and espurr made use of the rubble baltoy let it fall apart into, sending debris at a cacturne. The scraggy that had been there earlier was fighting marshtomp, but as Max watched, Danny's starter had a Water Gun connect, slamming the Unovan Pokémon into the cave wall.

Another Pin Missile forced baltoy to re-raise the rock, but help came from an unexpected angle. "Zorua, Copycat!"

Cacturne hastily hit the ground to avoid being hit by its own medicine, but that just made it an easy target for an Icy Wind from marshtomp. "Nice one," Max told Serena as he snapped his attention back to grovyle. "Grovyle, above you!"

One Quick Attack straight up later, and the besotted golbat hit the ground, although bisharp also took advantage of grovyle not standing in its way. Danny returned spritzee, switching his attention to espurr and marshtomp instead.

Some loud noise came from behind them, and Serena told them she was going to check it out.

A faint green glow told Max that grovyle's Overgrow had activated, and the second wind immediately forced bisharp back on the defensive as cuts rained down on it. Marshtomp followed suit, if the blue in the corner of Max's vision was to be believed, and he definitely heard the cacturne cry out in pain as some attack or another hit it. "Go marshtomp!" Danny egged his starter on.

Without warning, bisharp jumped back, and a tornado of fire engulfed grovyle from a dark corner. He could only focus on that for a moment, as a heavy Pokémon jumped on his shoulder, forcing him to the ground. He felt a claw digging into his right arm, painful, but not breaking clothes or skin. "Call off your Pokémon, or they get it," a voice rang from the other end of the room.

Max looked up as best he could, and he saw grovyle prone on the ground, green light extinguished, a houndoom looming over him threateningly. Max's right arm twitched with the desire to return him, but the claw stopped that. "Good boys. You are talented in the beautiful art of battle. Even so, we will take our leave now," the same voice as before, still hiding somewhere out of Max's view, said. "And you will let us pass, unless you want something to happen."

"You bastards!" Danny swore. "You—"

"Won't get away with it, blah blah blah," came the reply, and the man speaking walked into view, as did a woman pushing some cart. The wheels rattled on the uneven floor. "Listen, kid. This isn't some Unovan hero film, and you're no hero. Let us leave, and you're free to go unscathed." The man turned his head, revealing to Max that he had short-cropped dark hair. "Of sorts."

"Let them," Max said, feeling the Pokémon on his back tense, but not move otherwise, at his words. "Sometimes you're beat." Grovyle was worth too much to Max. _Any_ Pokémon of his was.

The way Danny shuffled his feet, just inside of Max's view, looked agitated, but luckily, he too recognised that there was no way out, and he took a few steps back, clearing the path. "You will let them go?"

"You'll just have to trust I do," came the almost gleeful reply.

Red beams crossed the room, returning three Pokémon, and the red-suited villains they had been fighting quickly left, followed by the woman pushing the cart. The wheels threw up some dirt into Max's left eye, forcing him to close it. Behind him, the whirring sound that Serena had went to check out became louder. He hadn't even noticed it dying down before.

Through his one remaining rapidly blinking eye, Max saw the houndoom drag grovyle over to them by the neck, and its trainer walking up as well. The Pokémon on Max's back tensed as well, ready to do something. Max didn't know what exactly.

"Let's go."

Houndoom sprang away with a bark, and the Pokémon on Max's back kicked off, knocking the breath out of Max's body and causing his chin to hit the ground, rattling his teeth painfully.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Battle Chateau noble rank requirements:_

 _Baron: 1 (one) initiation win._  
 _Viscount: 10 wins._  
 _Earl: 25 wins._  
 _Marquis: 50 wins, membership of at least one year._  
 _Duke: 50 wins, membership of at least two years._  
 _Grand Duke: Defeat the current Grand Duke._

 _Gym Leaders start at the rank of Marquis. Elite Four members start at the rank of Duke. In addition, Gym Leaders only require the wins to be raised to the rank of Duke._

 _Wins only count against those of equal rank, and reset upon receiving a new noble rank._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** A battle-heavy chapter as the group finds the Battle Chateau and has their first encounter with Team Flare a bit later. They don't play nice.


	6. Celebrating Variety

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Celebrating Variety**

The instant the sneasel jumped off of Max's back, Danny hurried to his friend. "Max! Are you okay?" he half-shouted, over the constant loud noise.

Max pushed himself up with his arms, stopping when he sat on his knees. "I'll be fine. Go to Serena."

Danny hesitated just long enough for Max to send him a glare that could melt ice, and he turned, running outside at full speed, into gusts of wind, roaring sound, and thrown-about sand. It forced him to throw an arm over his face, shielding his eyes the best he could. He spotted a black-and-red helicopter lifting off in between rapid blinks as he scanned the area for Serena.

She was to his right, close to the face of the mountain, fennekin and zorua by her feet. "Serena!" Danny yelled over the loud, but rapidly diminishing, noise. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she answered, moving closer as the helicopter vanished. "They just defended everything." She returned both her Pokémon as she stood beside him, shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Danny asked, confused.

"For not stopping them."

Serena didn't want to meet his eyes, but Danny forced her to, putting his hand under her chin before he realised what he had done. "You did the best you could. I know you did." Fennekin yipped by their feet. "Fennekin agrees, see?"

"I guess." Serena's face was halfway between a smile and a grimace. "Where's Max?"

"Inside. The bastards pulled a fast one." He turned back to the cave entrance. "They threatened Max and grovyle. Max wasn't hurt" he added, seeing Serena tense in his peripheral vision. "Grovyle was. Houndoom got him."

"He'll be okay," Max said as he rounded the corner, various Pokémon trailing behind him. He looked okay enough, although Danny saw a bit of blood on his chin. "They got away, then? _Shit_ ," he swore without waiting for either of them to confirm it. "Were there Pokémon in the cart?"

"No," Serena said before Danny could. "Looked like slabs of rock."

"Fossils, then." Max gave them a stony look. "Jirachi, I _hate_ losing to idiot criminals. Much better when we get them locked up."

"At least no press conference this time," Danny quipped, being rewarded with a slight hint of a smile breaking through. "You got blood on your chin."

Max opened his mouth, but Serena cut in first. "Press conference? What press conference?"

Oh, right, they hadn't told Serena that bit yet. Max was giving him a look that basically told Danny that he'd have to fix it. Danny hoped his silent and sarcastic thanks were conveyed well enough. "We.. We might have helped put a crime boss in jail," he rattled off.

"We'll explain tonight," Max interjected, pointing up. "Police is here."

A fearow with rider landed nearby, its rider jumping off and marching up. "Alright, where are the thieves?" Officer Jenny demanded, giving them a long look, ending with Serena.

"They escaped by helicopter, Officer," Serena told her. "Didn't you see it?"

"I heard one, but I thought it was the Kalos Coast Guard," the policewoman admitted. "Do you know if there's anyone else inside?"

"There were two more rhyhorn in the enclosure," Max said. "Should we go back inside?"

"No need," said a woman from behind them. When Danny turned around, he saw that she was cradling an arm, and her companion's left leg dragged behind slightly. "We're here."

"What's a bunch of kids doing here?" her companion asked, before shaking his head. "That came out wrong. Sorry."

Danny shrugged. He'd heard worse. "We wanted to see the cave. Sight-seeing. We're from Hoenn," he said, pointing at Max. "Then we found the thieves."

"Speaking of thieves, can you all ride the rhyhorn back to Ambrette?" Officer Jenny asked. "We need your accounts, and some of you need medical attention as well." Her gaze lingered on the two adults, though Max also got a longer look.

"Probably the best course of action," the woman said. "Dan? Is your ankle good enough?"

"I'll survive."

That evening, the instant they closed the door to their room behind them, Serena rounded on Max and Danny. "You owe me an explanation," she said. "And you're not going anywhere until you give it."

"Can I take a shower first?" Max asked, holding his own against her angry look. Danny figured Max was used to that from somewhere. "Come on, Serena. I promise we'll tell you. I just want to clean up first."

Serena broke first. "Oh, alright. But tell me everything afterwards."

Danny saw Max's mouth twitch, and he knew what that meant. Something was funny to Max, but he didn't want to let on it was. Knowing Max… Probably being amused because he won the stare-off.

As they heard the shower start, thankfully without Max trying to sing, Danny wondered what Max was going to tell Serena. It wasn't going to be everything. That was just not possible in one night, and Max liked his secrets.

Danny wondered how many Max was keeping from _him_ for a moment, before stopping that thought. That went nowhere he wanted to go.

"Danny?" He looked up, seeing Serena sit opposite him, fiddling with her knee brace. "How do you keep track of two Pokémon fighting? I tried, but..." It hadn't worked, as a golem had kept fennekin and zorua at bay without problems, though without actually injuring either Pokémon. She'd told them that on the rhyhorn back.

It was a question Danny didn't know the answer to. He just _could_. He'd always been able to as a Trainer. He seemed to always notice just in time when things happened, or where he could have his Pokémon work together even if they were fifty feet apart. Telling Serena that gave her no answers, and her face fell. "Maybe ask Max?"

"If you can't explain it, how can he? You're lots better at that."

"Ask him anyway," Danny told her, but hours later, as he crawled into bed as the last of them, he realised that Serena hadn't asked. She'd asked about poachers, about ralts when he came up, about Team Rocket, about baltoy… Max had answered everything, without lying too much about ralts, even when Serena started asking more.

At least they knew each other better now. That was something to come out of the day at least.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Two weeks after the Glittering Cave encounter with the thieves – who had been identified as Team Flare a week after, in an incident in the east of Kalos – they reached Cyllage City as the sun lit the ocean on fire and cast its fading rays over the small city and the adjacent mountains. "Here at last," Danny said. "The Gym is up in the mountains above the town."

"We're not going there now," Serena told them. "I want to check the Pokémon Center to see when the local Pokémon Showcase is first." A stomach grumbled. "And dinner, too."

"Yes ma'am," Danny said, saluting for the fun of it. Serena rolled her eyes, but otherwise ignored him as she focused on a sign at the side of the road.

Upon reaching the Pokémon Center, they were confronted with the familiar sight of a Gym Leader's notice of absence. "Not here until your birthday, Danny," Max said unnecessarily as all of them read the note. "And we're probably not the first to have scheduled a battle. Remember Flannery?"

"At least we'll have time to celebrate it," Serena said happily. "Birthdays are fun, especially with friends. Doesn't matter where you are."

"Yeah!" Max agreed. "Whenever it was close to one of our birthdays, we always did fun stuff, like visit a fair or do something they liked." The smile on his face turned… wistful? Was that the word?

"So what did you do for your birthdays with Ash?" Serena asked as they walked through the hallways to their room. "No, wait, let me guess. Visit a… museum on Pokémon."

"How did you know?" Max said as his head snapped to the girl walking next to him. "That's exactly what I did two years ago. When I turned eleven, I mean."

Serena giggled. "Lucky guess. It's something that fits you." They reached the room, finding the door unlocked, and the windows to look out on the courtyard behind the Center. "And what about the first year? Some kind of fair?"

"Walking, all day, and some of the night too." Max dropped his pack on one of the lower bunks. "There was a fair we wanted to get to, but we had to detour a lot for it."

Oh, right, that was why. The Millennium Comet week was just after Max's tenth birthday.

"Was it fun?"

"Of course. Have you ever been to a fair that wasn't?" Max half-lied without hesitation. From what Danny remembered, fun only covered a part of that week. "Now, let's go—"

A piano song Danny didn't know – when had Max changed his Holo Caster ringtone? - interrupted Max. He answered the call, and his words told Danny and Serena that it was the Ambrette Jenny.

Danny felt his stomach grumble, and he tapped Serena on the shoulder, miming eating. She nodded, and they left the room, off to find themselves dinner. "I still don't know why he wanted to be called," Serena said. "We're gone, the thieves are gone, and we told her everything we know."

Danny had an idea why Max wanted to know, but telling Serena that was straight out. "They did threaten grovyle, and Max can hold a grudge," he replied. It was true enough. "You know his patience for that."

"What patience?"

Both of them chuckled as Danny opened the door to the lounge. "Exactly."

The lounge was distinctly… girly. Danny spotted at least three posters for the Showcase on the walls, and the first thing Danny heard was a group of girls discussing furfrou fashion of all things. Luckily, the kitchen was all the way at the other end, and he didn't have to listen to that for too long. "What's wrong with a regular furfrou," he muttered.

"It's just not stylish," Serena said. "Wouldn't you want your Pokémon to look their best?"

"I want them to feel their best. Looks just aren't as important."

"Ugh, _boys,_ " Serena said. "So ignorant of anything fashionable. Not that those girls were right," she added darkly. "Everyone knows the Débutante Trim is in right now, but they're still stuck on Star and Heart Trims."

"If you say so."

"Well, I do." Danny's companion stuck her tongue out at him. "Got an inside scoop from a famous furfrou trimmer I visited with my aunt's furfrou. The Débutante Trim just fits so well with the current fashion."

Thankfully, Max arrived just then. "Hey, Max, aren't furfrou Normal-types?" Danny asked just to get away from the fashion topic. "Couldn't you catch one for your Dad?"

"For his birthday?" Max leant his head on his fist, thinking. "That's actually a really good idea. Thanks Danny!"

Danny hadn't meant a birthday specifically, but it worked. They had plenty of time to go find one on that schedule as well: Max's Dad was born in November. "No problem." They ordered food, and took a seat nearby, thankfully not anywhere near gossiping girls. "Looks like we have time to kill here. Serena, anything you know about Cyllage that we can do?"

"Nothing you'd enjoy," Serena replied with a wink. Danny mentally translated it to shopping. "It's winter. In summer, there's a huge stretch of beach to enjoy. No, Max, there's a no battling law on Kalos beaches," she added.

"Wasn't going to suggest it."

"You were," Danny corrected him. The betrayed look on his friend's face nearly made him laugh. "Face it, Serena's got your number."

 **~~§~~§~~**

There weren't a lot of boys and men in the theatre for the Pokémon Showcase. Danny and Max weren't the only ones, but girls and women outnumbered the males by at least three to one. Thankfully, the chatter around them was about the Theme Performance, and not about anything too girly. "Is this a normal Theme Performance?" Max asked, pointing at the programme leaflet they'd been given at the entrance. "Pokémon Horror?"

"Every Showcase has its own Theme Performance," Serena replied. "I'm not sure what this one is like, though."

Danny checked the leaflet as well, but only the title was given, and nothing else. "Guess we'll see in a bit."

Right from the start of the Showcase, Danny realised that this was different from the Contests back home, if only for the over the top entrance by the presenter. Serena informed them who he was, since he only gave his name before launching into something about the Princess Keys, which were like Ribbons, except not.

"And now," the man said in that heavy Kalosian accent, "we come to the Theme Performance. Often, Performers celebrate beauty and life and light, but that is not all there is. Today, here in Cyllage, you will witness our Performers style their Pokémon in a very particular way. Their goal is to create an ensemble that befits our horror theme, and do so fashionably."

Behind the man, the curtain rose, revealing three separate sort-of-rooms. "Each Performer will have fifteen minutes to style their Pokémon accordingly. Now, let us meet our first three Performers: Shauna, Anna, and Amélie!"

Three girls about Danny's age walked on stage, and Serena let out a… what even was that sound? "Oh, that's Shauna! She was in my school in Vaniville! I didn't know she was a Performer."

Danny cast a look at the leftmost girl, seeing a brunette with what he supposed was elegantly done-up hair, wearing a long red-pink dress. "Guess we know who you're voting for," Max teased.

Serena didn't deny it.

The Theme Performance went on longer than Danny was expecting, but there were some really cool interpretations of the theme. Shauna had given her bulbasaur's bulb and face the look of something rotten, earning her an outright majority to proceed to the Freestyle Performance round. Other Pokémon that stood out for Danny were a bunnelby that looked like a vampire, a kirlia with all black ribbons and other things decorating it, and an attempt at a ludicolo in mourning.

That last one got a few laughs from the audience at the sheer difference between what a ludicolo was like and what it looked like. It wasn't enough to proceed, as a bloody mienshao did a good zombie impression.

The first one out in the Freestyle Performance was an older girl, maybe 15, with the kirlia, a kricketune, and a small violin. Danny wasn't sure where she was going with it, but she put bow to snare and started playing.

It wasn't like a Contest at all. The girl played a slow, mournful, tune, her kricketune mimicking the sounds, and her kirlia singing along in a clear voice right next to Danny's ear. She walked around the stage for about thirty seconds, but then she fell. It was obviously on purpose, and her Pokémon rushed to her, shaking her once or twice.

Then, the kricketune picked up the tune again, and the kirlia _sang_ , the soft syllables overflowing with emotions that made Danny's heart wrench and his stomach tie itself in knots. He wanted, almost needed, something, but he didn't know or understand what exactly it was. He realised it was the kirlia at work, but it almost felt like there was something just on the edge of what he could hear.

Elbows jostled, causing Danny to turn away from the stage and look at the cause. Serena leant back in her chair, offering Danny a clear view of Max on her other side.

Were those tears in his eyes?

Max left as soon as the Performance finished, muttering something about the toilet in a voice that wasn't shaky at all, no sir. "What was that?" Serena whispered as the hall applauded the Performer and her Pokémon extensively. "I know kirlia did something, but what happened to Max?"

Danny didn't know for sure, but he had an inkling. Sadly, he couldn't tell Serena that inkling, and so he shrugged, telling her to ask Max himself if she wanted to.

After that start, the other five Freestyle Performances were almost flat. Shauna had a good combination of Fairy Wind and Petal Dance, but she suffered from going second, eventually ending up third overall. The mienshao and a hitmontop had gathered second place with a battle-dance routine around their trainer, but the first place went to Nancy, kricketune, and kirlia in a landslide. Danny voted for her, as did Max, and he suspected Serena would have voted for her if Shauna hadn't been involved.

Max left immediately after the winner had been declared, not even waiting for Serena and Danny. "That really rattled him," Serena said, casting a look at the door. "I mean, it was a sad song, but… Not that bad, right?"

Danny hummed in half-agreement. "Not for you or me, but for him it was," he said while tapping through to kirlia on the Pokédex. It didn't confirm his thoughts, but perhaps his Uncle would know. Something to ask tomorrow. "Leave him to it. He wants to be alone. Let's give him that space."

"Sure," Serena agreed, but her nod was hesitant. "Do you think it'd be okay to head down to talk to Shauna?"

"Let's try, and if we're not allowed to, we're not allowed to."

They weren't allowed into the dressing room, probably because Danny was there – if the look the theatre employee gave them was any indication – but Shauna was alerted, and came out with a cleaned-up bulbasaur by her side. "Is that you, Serena?"

"It is," Serena confirmed. "I never thought I'd run into someone else from Vaniville here! How have you been?"

"It's been so much fun! I've been travelling with two others, and they're doing the Gym Challenge. We've been on the road since early November." Shauna looked at Danny. "Hey! I'm Shauna. Nice to meet you." Then, to Serena. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"No!" Serena said quickly, blushing much the same as Danny.

Danny decided ignoring the question was the best strategy. "My name's Danny. I'm travelling with Serena, or she's travelling with us…" he said as he shook Shauna's hand. "I never got the difference."

"Well, you're experienced, so I'm travelling with you," Serena said, tilting her head up and folding her arms. "I met Danny and his friend Max at Professor Sycamore's laboratory, and the Professor convinced me to give going with them a try." Serena twirled around with arms stretched out, nearly hitting Danny in the ribs. "And here I am."

"And your knee?" Shauna asked, getting a weird look from Serena. "You were walking on crutches for months. Everyone in Vaniville noticed." The door behind her opened. "Oh, maybe we should talk somewhere else."

Shauna was okay, Danny decided as they left the theatre close to sunset. One of her travelling companions had shown up as well; a large boy from Santalune called Tierno, and a more happy-go-lucky person Danny had not met in months. The third of their group, a boy named Trevor, was off taking pictures, according to Tierno.

Danny took Serena's coat with him as he went to their room, but as he walked through the corridor, he saw that their door was opened already.

Max was inside, looking up as the door creaked on opening, smiling sadly in a way that Danny had seen him use only a few times before. Behind him, on the bed, the front pocket of Max's pack was open, a small case beside it, and Max also held something in his left hand.

Max gave Danny a few seconds to look at the item before putting it away, and leaving the room, beckoning Danny to follow. Coats were duly hung up, and Danny hurried after his friend, closing and locking the door before walking up to the waiting and outwardly okay, even smiling, Max.

Keith's Yule gift, now in its case in Max's pack again, told Danny otherwise.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny's birthday dawned grey and rainy, but the mood inside their room was infectiously happy from the moment all of them got up. Serena's initial congratulation came with a helping of cookies for breakfast, and for a time, the three of them just sat there in their pyjamas, eating cookies and sharing birthday stories of years past.

It was close to lunchtime when they finally dressed for the day. "Danny?" Max called as the official teenager walked out of the bathroom, hair still wet. "You want your presents here or elsewhere?"

"Now of course!" Danny replied enthusiastically. "I'm not unpacking presents anywhere else. Not after what you did for Yule."

Max smirked, and quickly told Serena about his gift for Yule. The real gift had been a two-CD album, but that had been hidden inside the luridly pink gag diary that Max had also bought. He'd wanted to pull a prank on Danny for a while, as payback for a couple of small things that didn't merit retaliation on their own, and it had worked gloriously. According to Danny's Dad, Danny had been fooled for a few minutes, and the call Max had gotten on his Pokénav after Danny had found the right gift had been the perfect mix of annoyed and thankful.

Max fully expected to be paid back in kind at some point, but all was fair in friendship and pranks.

"Well, here's my present," Serena said as she produced a rectangular box from underneath the bunk bed they were using for storing their packs. "Hope you like it!"

Serena's present turned out to be a pocketknife with a variety of handy things. Max spotted a regular knife, a serrated knife, something that looked like a can opener, a mini screwdriver, and even a thin magnifying glass the size of Danny's thumb. "So many things in something so small," Danny wondered. "I didn't even know these things existed."

"Now you do," Serena said, giggling. "You like it?"

"It's great! You've got some shoes to fill, Max."

"My present isn't as versatile," Max said as he lobbed it across the room. Danny caught it without a problem. "You'll like them."

"I did need new ones," Danny said as he unwrapped the present, revealing a pair of new in-ears. His old pair was, well, old, and Danny had complained a few times that the left in-ear had cut out mid-song. "Where'd you get these? There's no store in Cyllage that has these, right?"

"There's this thing called the internet and delivery."

Danny slapped his hand to his forehead. "And we've been here for a week, so plenty of time for something to be delivered. How'd I forget that?"

"You tell us," Max said, smirking at Danny's forgetfulness. "Anyway, we'll go get lunch. You go make that call."

"You have something else planned, right?" Serena asked as they walked through the mostly empty lounge.

"No. Why?" Max was a bit confused how Serena got to that conclusion.

Serena gave him a look that Max knew well from his sister. 'Are you being deliberately stupid?' was how he'd dubbed it. "You've been away a lot lately, making calls, talking to Nurse Joy… Going out on your own, too. My mother did the same thing when it was getting close to my birthday, because she was planning stuff."

"Well, no," Max replied. "The calls were to Clemont, Professors Sycamore and Birch, and I had to talk to Nurse Joy because I was waiting for the delivery."

"And the going out on your own?"

"Training, peace and quiet, just wanting to see Cyllage. You decide," Max told her, and it felt harsh even to his own ears, but he didn't care about that.

Serena probably noticed, if the harsh inhale was any indication. "Okay," she said. Definitely annoyed. "If you don't want to tell me, fine."

Max said nothing to that. He couldn't. Not without telling Serena about stuff he'd rather keep secret. As good as a friendship as they had, it was still a new friendship, and he did not feel comfortable sharing everything just yet.

 **~~§~~§~~**

When Max had read that the Cyllage Gym was in the mountains overlooking the city, he had expected something like a building on the mountain flank and an arena either inside or outside. Brawly had his island training place, and it was easy for a Rock-type Gym Leader to sculpt a place large enough to battle in.

When Max had seen the cave entrance, Pokémon League statues and all beside it, he had thought that it was a neat idea, but surely that it'd lead into a regular arena, just inside of a mountain. Hadn't Ash told them something about one of the Kanto Gyms being that way? Blaine's, wasn't it?

When Max had seen the giant structure, lined with climbing walls, and learned that the arena was located on top of it, he was amazed. It was grand and extravagant and completely in-line with the Rock-type of the Gym. The Gym Leader, Grant, also told them that challengers were allowed to climb the walls if they wanted to, but that the elevator was fine as well. Even climbing partway was fine, as not everyone would have the experience or endurance to climb all the way to the top. It was the journey, not the destination, that truly mattered, according to Grant.

How could he not try climbing at least a bit, especially after Danny wondered about safety, and Grant answering that by pointing out the lunatone and solrock hiding in the shadows of the mountain walls.

There were four stretches of wall to the top, but after the second one, Max's arms were sore; his fingers cramping at the thought of climbing more, and he chose to walk away, sliding down to the ground floor and watching Danny do his attempt at scaling the wall.

He fell, halfway up the second wall, but as promised, a heavy blue glow surrounded him, and two lunatone cried from above, safely delivering Danny right next to Max.

Serena begged off climbing, and Max couldn't blame her. It was hard on your arms and legs both.

Grant awaited the three at the top. "Good attempts, Danny, Max. I'd like to ask a few questions, if I may."

"Go ahead," Max told the Gym Leader.

"First. What were you thinking about while climbing?"

"Nothing, mostly," Danny answered first. "Just going from stone to stone, until I made a wrong move, panicked, and fell."

"Would you say everything went fine until you started thinking?"

"Sounds right."

"Sometimes, you need to just do. Be in the zone, achieve a kind of enlightenment, and be mindful of not knocking yourself out of that state by thinking too much," Grant said softly. "And what about you, Max? I doubt your answer is similar."

"I was constantly thinking about what I could reach, adjusting my path up," Max said. "If I thought I couldn't grab a stone safely, I looked for another path, even if that meant going down a bit."

"And why did you stop after two walls?"

"Because I felt like I couldn't do a lot more." An echo of ache shot through his right hand.

"I see. A different approach, but one equally valid. Knowing your limits is especially impressive, for one your age. Most challengers attempt to scale the wall with bravado and haste. You were calculated and calm, while Danny differed in that he put the destination out of mind." Grand smiled at them, flashing a Cliff Badge. "I hope your challenges will be polished enough to scale the last wall in full. That last wall, of course, is me."

Grant looked at each of them in turn, but Max pre-empted the coming question. "I'll be first."

"Excellent."

A Gym assistant told them that the rules for this battle were that the Gym Leader would use two Pokémon, while any challenger could use three, and be allowed to substitute their Pokémon. It was another cool format, after the one in Plantachid, and Max quickly pre-selected three Pokémon he was probably going to use.

They wished each other good luck and took up position at opposite ends of the arena. Max sent out his espurr, while Grant chose to use a boldore.

Deja vu, Max thought the Kalosian saying was.

Boldore typically didn't move much, but it would use rocks to deflect ranged attacks. "Bursts of Psybeam," Max told his small Psychic-type. "And keep moving."

From this distance, blocking was easy, as boldore had enough time to see the attacks coming and had to defend a smaller area to boot. The rock that boldore chose to use for blocking was a tiny bit too small, however, and it shattered after blocking the third burst of energy, granting espurr a lucky hit with her fourth and last Psybeam burst. "Get a bit closer."

Espurr scurried closer to the halfway line, but didn't need to do anything to defend herself because the boldore was… thrashing in place, with rocks rising and falling around it? Was it confused? Max shook his head, refocusing. "Psybeam, long."

Sadly, boldore had the presence of mind to levitate a rock in the way, and this one was oversized. Chips flew off, but the rock held. That was fine. "Debris in its ears," Max ordered.

He would have gone for the eyes, but boldore lacked those. Kinda. It was a weird Pokémon.

Some of the projectiles hit, but boldore ignored the barrage, instead launching a trio of Rock Blasts at the moving espurr. She rolled out of the way of the first rock, and stopped the second in its tracks with a Confusion, causing it to deflect the third with a loud crash. Debris headed for espurr, but a quick pulse of psychic energy stopped most of it.

Boldore launched another Rock Blast, and Max ordered espurr to get closer in response. She did so, avoiding incoming attacks with the help of psionically aided jumps, and she blasted boldore with another Psybeam from closer range. It was a lot faster than Max was expecting her to move, but he liked it. "Keep it up!"

Hop. Psybeam. Skip. Psybeam. Jump. Psybeam. Espurr's strategy reminded Max of clefairy's movement, which was weird because the two had never been on the same team, ever, and he hadn't taught espurr to do this. The short bursts of Psybeam were getting on boldore's nerves, as it lashed out with too-slow Rock Blasts first, and a light Sandstorm after, but espurr stayed in.

Then something else happened.

Boldore glowed, ignoring the Psybeam hitting it, and objects appeared in the sand. Rocks, in a gigantic Rock Tomb attack. They launched themselves at espurr one or two at a time, and there were at least two dozen of them.

Espurr rolled and ran, but Max was too late in recognising she was about to jump. He shouted for her not to as she launched herself into the air, and a rock immediately hit her from the left, knocking her back down. She landed harshly, but on her feet, skidding back with momentum, and four more rocks converged on her.

A flash of brilliant blue light forced Max to close his eyes, and a thundering sound echoed through the mountain as rocks crashed into each other.

When he reopened his eyes, stone dust was settling across the arena, blocking Max's view of the other side of the arena. "Hang in there!" he called out, but seconds later, he found out that had been for naught. Espurr was revealed, knocked out, at least several feet away from where Max had last seen her.

He returned her, but before he could decide who he was going to send out, boldore came into view. The Rock-type was pretty much backed up against Grant's section of shields, and Max knew it hadn't been there before.

He glanced to the side, seeing Danny explain something to Serena. Maybe he had a better idea of what had happened, but for now, there was a battle to be won. "Poliwhirl, you're up!"

The Sandstorm had been wiped out by whatever had happened, and Max wasn't planning on giving boldore the time to do whatever it did earlier again. "Water Pulse lob, then Water Gun!"

The pillars were an unwelcome sight, blocking the Water Gun, but at least the Water Pulse looked like a hit. Boldore took it, sending Rock Blasts out at the various pillars, which shattered, littering the middle of the arena with debris. Poliwhirl was too far back to be hit by the rocks, luckily, but Max knew the distance also gave boldore more time to react.

Poliwhirl sent two more jets of Water Gun boldore's way, both blocked by six foot high pillars appearing out of nowhere, but Max's Pokémon was prepared. Like she had done against Isaac's camerupt, she jumped on top of the pillar, and launched an immediate mid-air Water Pulse that boldore didn't block, followed by a Bubblebeam once she landed, ignoring the Rock Blast to the stomach she had taken on the way down.

The attacks finally took their toll on boldore, and its knees collapsed, with the referee ruling it out a few moments after that happened. Poliwhirl walked back, crying happily as Max waited for Grant to select his second Pokémon.

 _Carracosta, the Prototurtle Pokémon. They can live both in the ocean and on land. It can knock out a foe with a slap of its powerful developed front appendages._

No getting in close, then, which ruled grovyle out. Then again, Max wasn't ignorant. At this level, Grant had to have taught it counters to one of its main weaknesses.

If he was going to win this, he needed longevity and more power. "Rain Dance, see what it can do."

Poliwhirl nearly paid for setting up the Rain Dance as the carracosta barraged her with shards of rock from the previous battle, but the Stone Edge missed for the most part, only grazing an arm before being cut off by a defensive Water Gun. "Careful. We have time."

Grant realised that as well, and carracosta started forming a yellow ball of energy between its arms.

It was just charging, though. "Water Pulse."

The two unleashed their attacks simultaneously, carracosta perhaps half a second earlier, but when both globes met, the crackling yellow obliterated the pulsing blue. Poliwhirl rolled out of the way, but the small explosion washed over her regardless. "Water Gun, go!"

Water Gun met Stone Edge. Poliwhirl's attack was more powerful, but the water that reached carracosta was pitifully weak, not phasing it as it charged another one of those yellow orbs. "Quick, Bubble Beam."

Again, the attacks were launched at the same time, and again, the yellow orb won out, effortlessly slicing through the bubbles and forcing another dodge out of Max's Pokémon. This wasn't working.

At least carracosta was having similar trouble hitting poliwhirl for now. Jirachi knew a huge Rock Tomb would spell trouble. "Poke at it from a distance," Max ordered, hoping to buy time to think of something.

Poliwhirl obliged, starting to move around on Max's half of the arena, occasionally shooting Water Guns and Bubblebeams, and all of those were blocked, either through Stone Edge, or through that yellow attack – whatever it was – or through a Rock Tomb throwing boulders in the way, which then served as more debris for Stone Edge to use. It was a complete stalemate, with carracosta stoically defending whatever poliwhirl threw at it.

The realisation made Max feel stupid as shit. Carracosta was doing the same thing boldore had done, the same thing camerupt did back at the Battle Chateau. It was blocking with the terrain and attacks, and not moving. It probably wasn't a fast Pokémon to begin with, and Rock-types were experts at defending, as Roxanne had shown Max.

But that style of defending made it vulnerable to multi-pronged attacks. "Two Water Pulses, lob and straight."

Bingo. Grant made it defend the lob – the more powerful Water Pulse of the two – but that left it open to the other attack, which scored a hit on its belly.

Then the carracosta stomped down on the ground, glowing white all over, and the Rock Tomb that had done espurr in reappeared. "Dodge, and stay on the ground."

Unlike boldore, carracosta sent them at the opponent in a more continuous barrage, trying to bracket poliwhirl to a corner of the arena where dodging would be more difficult.

Max had actually practised dodging incoming rocks with poliwhirl, having thought that espurr's Confusion would be enough to keep them at bay. As such, most of the rocks were avoided, with poliwhirl tricking carracosta into wasting a few projectiles to boot. Three or so hit, but they were on her back or glancing. Or both.

Suddenly, poliwhirl tensed, jumping on top of the last large rock coming her way, using it as a springboard to launch herself up into the air, a blue glow already forming in front of her belly. "Watch out!" Max yelled.

Poliwhirl had watched out. The sudden Water Pulse caught carracosta off guard, and the yellow counter-attack, which had been so effective in blocking earlier, was not yet formed enough when the blue globe slammed into the turtle's side. The counter fizzled, and poliwhirl landed without a problem, immediately launching a Bubblebeam to keep the pressure up.

Carracosta took the bubbles head-on, instead glowing blue itself, and debris around poliwhirl erupted. Max heard his Pokémon cry out, saw her retreat, but she was okay still from the looks of it. "Well done. Keep it up!"

Large parts of the arena were light on the debris. The middle wasn't, nor was the rightmost third on Max's half, but where poliwhirl was now, off to his left and refreshing the Rain Dance? No debris in sight. Yet. For now, though, that Stone Edge trick wouldn't work.

Oh. That was an idea. "Poliwhirl?" Max caught his Pokémon's attention as she rolled out of the way of a single rock flying her away, incidentally confirming to Max that Grant's plan probably included a redo of the debris eruption. "Water Gun the middle at just the right angle. Send the debris that way."

Carracosta might have had armour-like qualities, but nothing liked being pelted with sharp rocks.

The Stone Edge it sent poliwhirl's way missed the Water Gun spectacularly, and poliwhirl was moving anyway to spray more debris, moving in a half-circle to keep the attack up as long as she could.

One of the larger shards of rock definitely hit Grant's Pokémon on its unprotected knee, nearly embedding itself in there.

Light-blue formed in front of carracosta's mouth, and an Ice Beam cut straight through the middle, creating a path of ice all the way up to Max's feet, about five feet wide. A second beam hit the shields a few feet to the left of the first path, adding more ice to the arena. Most of the arena was soaking wet after the Water-type attacks and the Rain Dance, making the frost stick easily.

"Trying to limit movement?" Max muttered, grinning. This wasn't going to work out for it. "Poliwhirl, time to slide!"

Poliwhirl had to wait another couple of attacks, lobbing two small and ignored Water Pulses in return. When she saw the gap she had been waiting for, she dove onto the ice, angling her jump so that she landed on her shoulder, rolling onto her back and sliding far faster than she could move on land.

The icy track delivered her to carracosta in no-time, and it didn't respond well enough. A Bubblebeam hit it on the chin, and it wavered.

Poliwhirl and Max both saw that. "Get it!" Max ordered.

A Water Gun from a now-standing poliwhirl slammed into carracosta's torso with full force, but it didn't move backwards under the attack, instead charging another yellow attack on its arms.

Then, with a mighty push and one of the few times it actually moved, it stepped forward, slamming the attack right into poliwhirl, causing an explosion that sent poliwhirl flying.

Max saw her land, and knew her battle was over in an instant. She was face down, but Max just knew.

"Poliwhirl and carracosta are both knocked out! The match goes to the challenger, Max!"

Wait. What? Max looked up from returning poliwhirl, and saw carracosta similarly face-down and unmoving, until Grant returned it. The shields protecting the Trainers vanished, their noise vanishing making the waterfall in the area all the louder by comparison.

Danny and Serena moved over, barely not running. "That was amazing!" Serena said as she hugged him without warning. "So many things going on, and poliwhirl hanging on for so long!"

"I thought she was done for at least two times," Danny admitted as he shook Max's hand. "Congratulations man. That was great after espurr's defeat."

"About that… What happened? I saw the flash, but..."

Max was looking at Danny, and felt relieved when his friend nodded. "I saw her ears lift," he told Max.

The Pokédex had said something about espurr's ears restricting wild Psychic power, but Max hadn't thought it to be that powerful. He shook his head ruefully. Espurr had tricks up her sleeve that Max hadn't known, and the battle had made that clear. He'd been treating her like baltoy: immobile, but good at range, but now… He had training plans to make.

"Congratulations to you," Grant interjected as he joined them. "It has been a while since I didn't see a third Pokémon. Might I ask what you had planned?"

"Against carracosta? Honedge, most likely," Max said. "I also had grovyle, baltoy, and bagon."

"A well-balanced team to beat Rock-types, I see. Yes, I understand your choice for honedge, and I suspect grovyle was not under consideration from the moment I sent carracosta out. Your calculated and thoughtful approach to dismantling my defences proves that."

Max nodded, grinning. "Figured it had a counter to Grass-types, and grovyle works up close."

"An understandable choice that was never needed, then," Grant told them as the Gym Trainer who had served as referee walked up. "You scaled the wall that is known as the Cyllage City Gym Battle," he intoned, almost cheerfully. "As a symbol of that, I present you with the Cliff Badge."

Max accepted the badge, and Grant turned to Danny. "We'll start our battle in about ten minutes. Take your time to talk this battle over with your friend."

"We can battle now," Danny offered, but then he turned around, and actually looked at the field. "Oh, right."

"That is another reason."

Once the field had been de-iced, drained of all water, and put back into one piece, Grant and Danny battled. Danny won, but he had to dig deep for that. It didn't help that Danny's stated plan of using Lairon last to just wreck whatever was out with Earthquake couldn't happen against a corsola, who would just soak the vulnerable Pokémon relentlessly.

A win was a win, though. Two badges down, six more to go.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _February 6_

 _Reports from Kalos are worrying in the extreme. Three significant indications of activity calls to mind the time leading up to the Scuffle of Legends, as it has become known. Then too, targets were chosen carefully, and attacked with decent, yet overwhelming force. It was sadly impossible for me to do more than alleviate; a feat I still regret. The destruction the two legends wrought was extensive, and only rayquaza knows how casualties were that low._

 _The Kalos branch of the International Police is aware of our wariness, but reports from one of my mid-level contacts suggest obstruction from on high, and our own manpower is stretched as is, as is my attention. It is, as Reginald says, vexing, and I truly hope that we aren't too late. For now, there seems to be no indication of Flare moving towards anything past large-scale thievery with violence, but their motives are shrouded, and my instincts tell me to expect the worst._

 _I hope they are wrong._

From: Journal of Lance, Grand Champion of Kanto (year 6).

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Grant down, my first attempt at a Showcase, and the aftermath of last chapter. Happy in-universe birthday to Danny.

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, and other seasonally appropriate greetings to everyone, by the by.


	7. Tourist Attractions

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Tourist Attractions**

Serena lifted her left leg, stretching it for the fifth time in the last hour at least. It was the day after Danny and Max had won a badge in Cyllage City, and overnight, the rain had completely soaked most of the lower half of Route 10, just not the parts closest to Cyllage.

Serena was cold, tired, wet, and her knee was starting to pulse along with her heartbeat. Not good.

She felt one of the boys open her pack, taking one of the items out before pulling the cord to close it just a bit too hard, jerking her back. "Oops," Danny said as he steadied her immediately. "Here. You need this."

Serena accepted the portable crutch, fiddling with it until it reached the length she was most comfortable with. "I'm sorry boys..."

"Don't be," Max told her. "You can't help your leg, or the weather." She saw the younger boy check the map, looking around for landmarks to use. "Should be a mile. Can you manage?"

As it turned out, she couldn't, and just as the Pokémon Center became visible downhill, Serena stopped walking. Even with the crutch, her knee was throbbing too much, hurting too much, and with every step Serena took with the weight on her back, it felt like it was going to give, which would have sent her into the dirt. "Stupid knee!" She adjusted the crutch slightly, feeling it start to sink into the soggy ground.

Danny helped her to take the pack off, which was a literal load off her knee. "You can walk it like this?"

"Hopefully," Serena replied, glaring at her knee. It wouldn't help, but it felt good. "But what about my pack?"

"Simple," Max spoke up. "I go on ahead, get a room, drop my pack, and come back. Shouldn't take long."

Danny hummed agreement, and Serena didn't see a problem with that either. "You don't mind carrying my pack for a bit?"

"We walked thirteen miles today already. What's..." Max looked up and down the road, seeming to gauge the distance. "Half a mile more?"

"Too much for me."

"Extenuating circumstances. Now, I'll be back. Don't kiss too much."

Serena swore telling Max about Shauna's words in the theatre had been the worst idea of her life.

The younger boy walked off at a pace Serena was sure she couldn't have matched even before her knee happened. "Are you certain he doesn't _like_ that Linda girl?"

"Pretty sure," Danny repeated himself. They'd had this conversation before, and sadly, the answer didn't change. "Him making fun of you is good, actually. Means he feels he can do that."

"Is that boy logic?" Serena wondered, studying Danny as she asked her question. "I mean, you two are best friends, and you insult each other so often."

"It's how we work. Trust me, Max does it with his sister too, and worse," Danny told her. "And she returns the favour. Hard."

Serena hadn't seen May and Max do that all too much, but Danny had known him for far longer, and she assumed he wouldn't lie to her. "So more Max logic than boy logic?"

"If you want to call it that." Danny spread his hands as he looked up and down at the crutch. "I'm just glad we're here, and not a mile back. I know we have tents and all, but..."

Serena followed Danny's gaze upward, seeing grey clouds speed across the sky, left to right. "Yeah," she agreed, trying to imagine her knee after a night in the cold and wet weather. "At least it's not freezing." Oh, that would have been the worst...

"But then the road wouldn't have been as muddy."

Serena conceded the point. "How long until Max returns?"

"Quarter of an hour?" Danny ventured after looking up and down the road in the same way Max had done earlier. "He's nearly halfway there, but then he has to talk to Nurse Joy."

"Hope it's not too bus… Hey!"

Something dropped onto Serena's head, the sudden weight surprising, but not enough to do much more. "Blu, blu!" a Pokémon cried.

"Hey there," Danny said, reaching out to the Pokémon atop Serena's head. "Aren't you a curious little thing." He smiled, half at the Pokémon, half at Serena. "It's a swablu. They're actually sort of infamous for sitting on people's heads."

Carefully, leaning against a tree to balance herself, Serena undid her crutch and lifted her hat off her head with both hands. The blue-white Pokémon stayed put, chirping happily as Serena turned the hat to face her. "Hiya. You like my hat?"

The swablu made a melodic thrill before fluttering up and settling in Serena's hair, its wings by its side. She brought an arm up, running her thumb across what felt like the back of swablu's skull, to happy titters and a camera shutter clicking. "Here, go use your crutch again before you fall over," Danny said as he took her hat from her hand.

Only when leaning on the crutch did Serena feel how much that little time not using it had irritated her knee. "We're staying here a few days, I think."

Danny shrugged before snapping another picture. "Not like we have to be somewhere soon."

They waited for Max to return, most of their attention aimed at Serena's new hat. The swablu adored the attention, and its joyous cries made Serena feel better as well. This was how humans and Pokémon should interact, and not like one of those attacks in Hoenn.

Max showed up about twenty minutes after leaving them, taking one look at the three of them. "New fashion?" he asked before taking Serena's pack on her back and fiddling with the straps. "You're going to have to adjust these, sorry."

Serena waved it off. If that was everything, it'd be fine.

Somehow, she managed to make it to the Center without one of the boys needing to support her. Nurse Joy was ready for her, and she hadn't been so glad to see a wheelchair, ever, dropping into it without any care in the world. "There's a warm bath ready for you," the nurse told her as she revelled in sitting down. "As much as your knee needs cold, you need to warm up first."

Wasn't that the truth. Serena let Nurse Joy lead her to a bath in the staff area, and she smelled the bath before she saw it. She shivered with anticipation as Nurse Joy led her to a fold-up chair to sit on while undressing. She'd done that before, just not in a while, and after a rocky start with one of her shoes, she quickly fell back into the rhythm. Swablu had hopped off of her head, instead perching on the towel rack.

Serena put a hand to her knee after taking the brace off. The knee was almost painfully heated, far more than the rest of her leg, and she could feel it throb under her palm. "Blu?"

"I hurt my knee really badly last year," Serena replied, figuring swablu was wondering what was going on. "It took a long time to recover, and it's still not fully healed yet." She finished undressing, placing her socks on top of the pile of clothing. "Nurse Joy? I'm going in now."

"Okay," the nurse replied from outside the room. "I'll come back in twenty minutes with a towel, and I'll leave my eevee outside. If you need me, just tell eevee to come get me."

A short cry announced eevee's presence, but Serena only had one goal in mind: the bath. Luckily, the chair was close to the bathtub's edge, and with a bare minimum of having to lean on her bad leg, she made it in.

The soft warmth was divine, and Serena couldn't help but coo at the wonderful feeling.

It made swablu hop down to the side of the bath, carefully extending one of its wings to dip it in the water. "Careful," Serena warned, watching the small Pokémon balance itself. "It can be sli..." she trailed off as swablu fell in, wings fluttering wildly. "Slippery," she finished as she scooted forward the best she could, placing one of her arms underneath the swablu's body.

Swablu immediately stopped moving and let itself be lifted from the water, hopping down onto the floor and shaking itself, sending water everywhere, including her clothing.

Serena couldn't find it in herself to admonish the Pokémon for doing that. It was funny and cute, and it probably had learned its lesson already. She sank back, leaving only her head above water, and swablu soon took up position on the towel rack again.

The heavenly twenty minutes were over far too soon. Nurse Joy came in with a towel, but Serena successfully convinced her that drying off was something the teenager could do herself. Maybe it wasn't as fast, and some spots were really hard to reach well when you didn't want to stand up for too long, but she managed, with only a wet chair to show for it.

"Your travel companions have some ice for you to put on that knee," Nurse Joy told her as she applied the compression bandage around Serena's knee. "I want you to ice it at least twice today, and come to my sister tomorrow morning for another bandage like this. And as little walking as you can manage. Walking the distance from your wheelchair to the toilet is as much as you're allowed to until one of us says otherwise."

"I can do the bandaging myself, Nurse Joy," Serena tried as she felt the swablu settle on her head again, bristling in her damp hair. "You knew it was wet, swablu."

"You'll have to show my sister that tomorrow," Nurse Joy replied calmly. "Now, do you have any Pokémon I need to check out? Maybe that swablu?"

The nurse helped Serena bridge the distance to the wheelchair. "It's not my Pokémon. Just a wild one who decided my head was a good nest." Hat or no hat, as it turned out.

"Judging by how comfortable it is, it might want to be your Pokémon." Swablu tittered enthusiastically at Nurse Joy's words, hopping down to Serena's lap and doing a little dance. "See?"

"You want to travel along?" Serena asked, and the way swablu burrowed itself into her answered that question. "Well. Welcome aboard."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Geosenge Town was colourful, calm, and very, very rock-filled. They were standing in the main street of the town, halfway through the afternoon, and Danny counted at least five vendors of rocks of any kind: for Pokémon, for jewellery, even for ornaments to put in a living room. "So many evolution stones," Serena said, and her swablu tittered from on top of her head. "You have Pokémon who can evolve like that, right? Vulpix and poliwhirl and helioptile and clefairy?"

"I've had helioptile for what? A month?" Danny did a quick count in his head. "Yeah, about a month. I'm not even thinking about evolving her. Besides," he said as he eyed the price tag on a nearby Leaf Stone, "they are expensive _and_ common tournament victory prizes." As Ash had proven by sending two stones over to the Maple family just from winning tournaments in Sinnoh. "Maybe this time next year or something. I'll ask Clemont what he did," he added as he remembered the Lumiose Gym Leader having a heliolisk.

"And my Pokémon don't want to evolve. I asked them this morning," Max said matter-of-factly. "What?" he added when Serena gave him a weird look. "They evolve. If they don't want to, they don't want to."

"I never thought of it like that..." Serena said, thinking hard before shrugging. "Luckily, I don't have a Pokémon like that for now, so I don't have to think about it."

Serena's words made the two boys chuckle, and with that, they left the evolutionary stones behind them, instead heading for the jewellery. Serena's mother had her birthday coming up, as had Max's mother.

Luckily, Danny's mother had a birthday in the summer, and he didn't have to think about finding her a present for ages. He'd have time to look when they got back to Lumiose, he knew that for sure.

Serena ended up buying a malachite pendant, and Max walked away with a quartz bracelet after far too long. "Finally," Danny said as they stepped out into the surprisingly decent weather. "Can we go do something fun now?" he whined.

Serena didn't take the bait. "We can go to the museum. It's got all sorts of history about Geosenge. Mum took me there two years ago, and it was great."

Max agreed quickly – he was probably in favour the moment Serena said the word 'museum' - and Danny was okay with it as well. Geosenge had a long history with many interesting things, he had read here and there, and learning more about that was a fun way to spend time.

The museum was easily located, and not very busy for a Saturday afternoon. The pensioner selling them tickets wasn't even there for two minutes before he came striding into the entrance area. He apologised profusely for not being there, telling them he had thought it was safe to go refill his cup of coffee. They just waved it off, and Danny doubted Max had even noticed the pensioner's absence too much. There was a case to the right of the entrance that had grabbed his attention immediately.

True to Serena's words, the museum was, in fact, pretty cool. Max was happily devouring every little bit of knowledge in sight, muttering under his breath whenever he saw something particularly interesting, while Danny stuck mostly to the history of the region. Rocks were nice to look at, but he didn't really need to know about that.

Eventually, they happened upon a separate dead-end room with several glass cabinets One was of a man with a floette floating near his shoulder, a runestone formation visible in the background, underneath a fiery sky. Something felt off about the painting, but Danny didn't really know what.

 _Ancient King 'AZ' and his beloved floette._

The other painting was far larger. On the left side, Danny saw a blue and black Pokémon with rainbow-coloured antlers, standing in a vividly painted glade. One of its legs rested atop a boulder, and it looked right, facing the other Pokémon. This one was red and black, and a bit of grey too, hovering in mid-air above a devastated desolate part of the land. Danny saw dead trees and moss, and the greenish hue to the water made it all the more creepy.

The two styles of each side met in the middle, mixing the Pokémon's influences on the visible ground in a way that made the ground look… fragile. It wasn't like the paint was cracked, but it nearly looked like it, until Danny moved and saw it was a trick of perspective.

 _Xerneas and Yveltal, the Mortality Duo of Kalos._

Danny took a look at the case next to the Mortality Duo's painting, finding a decayed stone etching, with a translation by the side.

 _Days the Duo warred, destroying Earth and Sky. Life created, uncaring. Death destroyed, indiscriminate. Life drove Death away, but Death always returned, unending, tireless._

Other cases on that side of the room told similar stories, or talked about archaeological finds supporting the hypothesis that those two Legendary Pokémon laid waste to large parts of Kalos 3000 years ago. It was the legend Max had told him about while reading up on Kalos.

Then he came to the other half of the room, passing by Serena going in the opposite direction, and found a different hypothesis.

This one spoke of an ancient 'ultimate weapon' that was used to stop an all-encompassing war. It malfunctioned, creating destructive energy that reached as far as route 13 and even route 14 north of Lumiose. The King depicted in the painting was seen as the architect of the weapon, driven to desperate measures by the death of his subjects and his partner Pokémon.

"Which version sounds more reasonable?" a cheery deep voice asked from the entrance. When Danny turned around, he saw a teenager a few years older than they were, with reddish-orange hair, wearing the uniform of the museum. "The ancient weapon, or the Legendary Pokémon?"

"Pokémon," Danny answered instantly. Max had told him enough stories of how powerful Legendary Pokémon were, and the potential for destruction they had was well-known to anyone over the age of ten in Hoenn, if not anyone over five. "They didn't have stuff like that back then."

Danny was expecting Max to back him up on that, but when he turned to his friend, he saw Max shake his head. "They did have some weird stuff back then. Pokélantis and Pokémopolis in Kanto are still barely understood." He sighed. "But Legendaries destroying a region is..."

"Something someone from Hoenn would understand," the employee interjected, smiling at them as he walked up. Serena also joined them, though she was silent. "You were incredibly lucky it ended as quickly as it did two and a half years ago. But that isn't why you are here. Do you know why we put these things in one room?"

That was a good question. Every time Danny could think of, all the evidence for a certain event happening had been in its own section, with clear markings on the floor and walls when they reached a new area. This room didn't have that. "Because they're both true?" Serena ventured.

Danny wasn't sure how both could be true, since they were talking of the same events in the same time, but with very different causes, but he saw the employee – Maël, he read – nod. "Close. We don't know which is true, not even after over a hundred years of studying this." He led them to the painting. "If we accept this, how do we explain strange readings from the route 13 soil? Even now, some ill-understood energy emanates from it. Harmless energy, but it is completely foreign to any other known Kalos route." He took about ten steps to their left. "Yet, if we assume the weapon is the cause, how do we explain findings that match a Legendary Battle in the general time frame as far away as Anistar and Couriway? The weapon only reached to Lumiose."

"You sure know a lot about this," Serena observed. and Danny nodded along.

"Grew up on it," the teenager replied easily. "My mother is the curator, as my Papa – my grandfather – was before her." He sat down on the floor with his legs crossed, and the other teenagers joined him there. "I'll ask you a question my Papa did when we made this room last year. Which version of history is scarier?"

"They're both pretty scary when you think about it," Serena said, and Danny found himself in agreement, nodding along. "Something that can destroy that much..."

"Horrifying, isn't it?" Maël stated. "I agree with you, but my Papa doesn't." He leant forward, poking Max in the shin. "You're silent. What do you think?"

Max opened and closed his mouth, seemingly thinking of something as he was about to speak. "I think..." he eventually started. "I think it's the weapon version." Danny saw Maël move his hand in a circle, telling Max to continue. "Pokémon are powerful, but raging Pokémon don't think or plan or have contingencies. Humans do. They're harder to stop."

Max took a deep breath, as if steeling himself, before starting to talk again, interrupting Maël. "Legendaries are powerful. Some are _terrifyingly_ powerful, like lugia or groudon or yveltal, and seeing and feeling the power of those Pokémon going at it is… it's indescribable. Tornadoes and whirlpools with a single flap of kyogre's fins… Thunderstorms with lightning strikes every second… Groudon's awakening causing a volcano to appear… I know what they can do, and how much they can stand up to. Humans made that possible."

"You..." Serena started timidly, and Danny quickly turned away from Max's drawn face to Serena, who looked… scared? "You were there? That's what you're saying, right?" She saw confirmation from Max, changing her expression to something Danny couldn't read. "I thought you trusted me..." she said softly.

Danny cut Max, if he wanted to speak, off with a sharp slash of his hand. "Serena," he said softly, catching her attention. "You know how long Max and I have been friends, right?" She nodded. "I found out in July. Nearly two years after it happened," he added. "And only by accident, too. Max likes secrets a bit too much."

"Max is sitting right here," Max muttered, but for once, Danny felt no qualms about sending him a scathing glare. It shut the younger boy up.

"I can understand it even if I hate it," Danny allowed, turning back to Serena. "Imagine what your mother would say if you got into something like that. Max's parents are the same. He would have been grounded until he was an adult."

"I think you shouldn't discuss this here," Maël interrupted, reminding them that he was in the room as well, although he had gotten up when Danny wasn't looking. "I'll keep this secret, of course, but I would love to talk about groudon and kyogre. Are you here tomorrow?"

"Should be," Max said, standing up himself, but carefully avoiding all gazes. "We're in the Center."

"Brilliant!"

 **~~§~~§~~**

Five days after Max had admitted to Serena that he'd been keeping secrets from her, and also five days after Danny and Serena had teamed up to make Max tell her a few more things after they returned to the Center, they were walking through the Reflection Cave east of Geosenge. Danny and Serena followed, while Max was walking about a dozen paces ahead, sulking still.

Danny didn't understand why, really. He had made sure Max didn't have to retell the week in Forina or that thing in Kanto with the lucario, feeding Serena a line about them being sensitive topics Max hadn't liked talking about. It was true, if Danny's memory was correct. Serena had accepted that, telling them she wouldn't press Max for answers. It had also stopped most of Serena's annoyance – which Danny had already been trying to limit by offering explanations – in its tracks, but still, Max was giving him and Serena both the cold shoulder, only interacting by necessity pretty much.

Danny wanted his friend back, but he wasn't going to grovel for it. He had some pride, and he was in the right.

He glanced aside, seeing his reflection glancing back at him, illuminated by froslass holding a torch above them. There were so many reflective surfaces in here, it was like walking through a house of mirrors at a fair, except without the maze part. He made a face, his counterpart doing the same, and Serena giggled. "This place is cool."

"Uhuh," Serena agreed, adjusting her hat so it nearly covered one of her eyes. "Looks better than I tho-ought!" she said, having to grab the hat as it slid off her head. "You know there's a legend about this cave?"

Danny saw Max's head jerk upwards before his brain caught up, remembering that he was supposed to be angry, and going back to the regularly scheduled sulking. "Tell me?"

"One of these mirrors is supposed to be a portal to an opposite world," Serena said as they turned a corner to a temporarily mirror-less stretch. "You exist in that world, but the you is the complete opposite of what you are. If you're kind here, you're cruel there and so on."

That was a really cool legend, even if it couldn't exist. "I wonder what opposite-me would be," Danny mused.

"Probably all about attacking in battle."

Danny had to agree with Serena there. He liked defending and countering in battle, so his counterpart would be all about attacking. "And you'd know exactly what you wanted to do," he replied, smiling to take the sting out. "Did you decide on the Freestyle Performance plan already?"

"Been working on it," Serena replied, one hand going to her belt. "Having swablu made it a lot easier to practice Copycat. Too bad it doesn't work with Sing."

Danny remembered zorua using Sing the night before, and shuddered. The yowling had not been calming or soothing at all, like Sing was supposed to be. "At least you found out now."

"True." Serena glanced aside and slightly up at Danny, before nodding her head at Max. "What would his opposite be?"

Danny came up with an answer faster than he was expecting himself. "Stupid and very, very simple in Pokémon battles."

Before Serena could reply, Danny heard a pitiful cry from the rocks to his right. He looked around, down since the sound came from that direction, and found the source quickly. It had come from a small grey Pokémon, with green spikes. He recognised it as a ferroseed, which were generally shy and somewhat rare Pokémon mostly found in Unova, though they were also native to Sinnoh and Kalos.

Its eyes were fogged over, and Danny felt it would shiver if it hadn't been made out of steel. "Max!" he yelled, creating a slight echo in the halls. "Need ya!"

While Max was coming, Danny carefully knelt by the Pokémon, gently putting a finger on the metal body, and finding it to be hot to the touch. Serena did the same when she saw that the ferroseed let Danny. "A fever? In a Steel-type? How does that work?"

"Same as humans," Max said snippily. "Fever's your immune system working." He tried to move the ferroseed, but couldn't. "It's stuck to the rock. Trying to eat, probably. It's how they get nutrients in the wild."

"It doesn't look alright. Can't we give it some medicine?" Serena asked.

"We don't know what caused the fever. Not every illness can be treated the same way. Fevers are also not always a sign of something worse," Max lectured as he walked around the rock ferroseed had stuck itself to. "This one probably is bad, though. Just a feeling."

Danny met Max's eyes in the semi-dark, as both froslass and baltoy had aimed their torches at someplace lower. He couldn't read his friend's face all that well, but Danny got the feeling Max wanted him to do something.

It wasn't until Max mimed taking a pokéball that Danny understood. "Capture it? Wouldn't it..."

"Should be okay," Max said. "Unless you want to break the rock and lug it around for however long," he added sarcastically.

Ignoring the tone, Danny did see the point Max was making. Steel-types were heavy as a rule, and even if it only weighed as much as his magnemite, that still was a lot of extra weight to carry to Shalour. He didn't know how far the town was, but probably at least an hour of walking away.

"Aren't Steel-types really defensive?" Serena wondered, interrupting Danny's thoughts. "That makes it perfect for you, Danny."

Danny made to tell Serena that wasn't how it worked, but Max spoke up first. "Ferrothorn looked like a Pokémon you'd like," he said. "Like dusclops. And you can always set it free if it doesn't want to be a Trainer's Pokémon."

Danny wondered if the mirror version of him would be headstrong to the point of not listening to anyone, ever. "Alright," he said, enlarging one of his empty pokéballs. "Let's hope this works."

The ferroseed barely resisted capture, and the capsule vanished, zooming off to Lumiose, and hopefully, to some healing. Danny would have used the Holo Caster to call after it, but service inside caves was terrible.

"Right. Now, on to Shalour," Max told them, immediately starting to walk, baltoy floating alongside him with the torch providing light.

Danny didn't know if Max knew he was doing it, but he was making sure he stayed a lot closer to Danny and Serena than he had done before they had found ferroseed. He could only hope it meant Max was close to making up with them.

Time to think of something suitably haughty to say.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The Shalour City Pokémon Center had a perfect view of the city's main feature: the Tower of Mastery. It was home to many legends about Mega Evolution from ages past, when they had been nothing more than whispered tales passed down within families. The island the Tower was on was also home to the local Gym. Right now, however, there was no path to the Gym or Tower to speak of, as the tides covered the shoal that let Trainers access it.

Max hadn't imagined ever needing to know when low tide was, but to access the Gym, he had to. Thankfully, the Center posted a list with those times on the notice board. He'd seen it a few minutes before as they arrived from their trek through Reflection Cave. Danny had gone off to talk to Professor Sycamore about ferroseed, Serena had gone to get a shower, and Max had moved to the Center's back, wanting to be alone and being surprised with a beautiful sunset.

A popping sound announced the arrival of one of Max's Pokémon, and he wasn't surprised to hear his Dragon-type grumble near his feet. Nor was the pull on his trouser leg a surprise. "You'll have to get up yourself," Max told bagon, not even taking his hands off the low wall. "You're too heavy for me to lift."

The sound of annoyance was funny. Despite bagon growing a lot in the past two months, putting on at least half his previous weight and showing a lot more sinewy muscles, he was still the same downright clingy Pokémon he had been before, preferring to let Max solve a problem for him.

Max was getting better at saying no, but the bagon was still very good at wrapping his trainer around his stubby arms. At least bagon did listen to him when Max said no, and he saw the Pokémon wander off in search for a way to get up on the wall.

Max glanced a quick look down, seeing there was an empty alley below them. A fifteen foot drop, maybe? Bagon would be fine if he lost his balance, and Max could only hope there was nobody walking below. He noticed a small arena off to the side, empty now, but puddles still littered the field, and he was reasonably sure it hadn't rained today.

He looked back up at the Tower of Mastery, and blinked, twice. The Tower was hazy, like watching it through weird shutters or something, almost flickering.

And then it vanished before Max's eyes, and he didn't even blink.

He shook his head. The last time that happened, he thought it had been a lack of sleep, but Max had slept more than enough the past few days. It wasn't like he was very tired either. Reflection Cave had been easy to get through. So why was he seeing this? "Questions without answers," he murmured, annoyed. It was not the first one he had found in Kalos.

Who was Team Flare? What was their goal? What they did didn't fit with what Max knew from past experiences. Team Rocket – the organisation he mentally clarified for himself – wanted Pokémon. Team Aqua and Magma had their Legendary Pokémon. When either of them went thieving, it was usually related to their goals, but there seemed to be no common thread for them. An attack on the Laverre Pokéball Factory, Fossil thieving, an attempted raid at an archaeological excavation near Snowbelle, where no Pokémon fossils had been found… He didn't get it. The only thing he really knew was that they weren't afraid of threatening humans with their Pokémon.

Even if it had been a month, the sneasel sneaking up on him still annoyed him. How often had Team Rocket snuck up on them and they hadn't noticed? He should have been more vigilant.

Happy cries from Max's left made him refocus his gaze, and he saw bagon walking on the wall, not really balancing himself but also not really needing to: the wall was wide enough for the Dragon-type to walk on. "Gon!"

"Yes, you did it," Max said, scratching bagon underneath his chin when the youngest member of his team sat down in front of him. "Did you find something to climb?"

"Ba," the Pokémon replied, pointing left. Max followed the arm and saw a small stone bench. That'd do it. "Go-on."

"Feeling proud of yourself, aren't you?" Max smiled down at his Pokémon, not that bagon could see it. "You know, when you grow up, you won't need to worry about climbing things any longer. You'll be able to fly."

"Baaaaa..." came the dreamy reply, causing Max to chuckle softly. Bagon's Pokédex entry was proven true once again.

Realistically, he wouldn't see a salamence for years, though. Dragon-types took a long time to evolve, and while Drake had publicly boasted of training a bagon to salamence in two years, Max was nowhere near the Dragon Master's level. He'd be lucky to have one by the time he was as old as Ash.

Pokémon evolution was always a funny thing. Danny's starter was younger than Max's by a few days, but Danny already had a swampert and grovyle didn't look close to evolving. Max was also certain baltoy was older than both of them, maybe even combined, but baltoy and claydol were very long-lived to begin with. Unless something happened, baltoy would be with Max when he was Drake's age and older.

The idea of something happening chilled him, and he wished nothing would. Losing one Pokémon had been enough already.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The opening ceremony for the Champion's League was very different from what Ash was used to from previous Leagues. It made sense: it was all about the twelve individuals and not about several hundred trainers, but seeing his achievements on a big screen, listening to the announcer read them out as he waited to emerge from the Indigo Stadium catacombs was extremely weird. He didn't think he'd done that much, but seeing all of it listed made it look like a lot.

Maybe it was a lot, and he hadn't noticed between all the stuff that he had experienced.

The applause as he walked out, pikachu naturally walking beside him, was definitely the loudest it had been yet. He was the first of two Kanto participants, but they were being introduced in chronological order, and the other one from Kanto had been the runner-up in the Silver League two months after his title.

He shook hands with all of the other competitors before moving to stand next to the man he'd beaten last June. The twenty-something year old from Violet City had dyed his hair purple since they last saw each other two days before. He probably had something in mind, but Ash didn't really want to figure that out. All he cared about was that Wesley was a genuinely easy-going guy with a deep understanding of battles.

The loss of the dragonite for the Lily of the Valley final had been huge for him, and probably the most luck Ash had ever had. A rematch with the dragonite would be a battle to remember.

Sadly, the first time they could encounter each other was in the final phase after the initial round robin group stage. Participants from the same tournament were placed in different groups. In fact, Wesley was up in the very first match, while Ash had to wait until tomorrow to get started.

Thankfully, the opening ceremony didn't last too long after the introductions. Mr. Goodshow gave a speech, as per usual, but that was it. Ash and nine others filed into the catacombs again before going back up to the stands to go watch the opening match of the tournament.

There was a VIP box reserved for participants, but Ash had no intention of going there. Instead, he went into the stands around halfway up, easily locating seven people in the audience nearby. Thankfully, the seats they had occupied started with an aisle seat, meaning he didn't have squeeze himself to pass by several others just to get to where his seat had been kept empty.

Of course, Gary had made the 'Seat Reserved' sign. Ash ripped the paper off of the seat, ignoring the crude drawing and the misspelling of his name to sit down next to his mother, left, and Professor Oak, right. Gary, Tracey, Misty, Brock, and May were further down from the Professor.

He exchanged a few words and a quick hug with his mother, while pikachu went over to misty for greetings, but the moment the scoreboard lit up, Ash's full attention went to the battle below. They were opponents, but also acquaintances. All of them wished each other the best of luck, and it was that weird mix of genuine well-wishing and insincerity.

After all, any League could only have one winner.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Champion's League groups:_

 _Group A: Hale, Brian (Alola) | Peterson, Karen (Unova) | Black, Daniel (Sinnoh) | Arrow, Wesley (Johto) | Spar, Peter (Sinnoh) | Gordon, Alice (Unova)_

 _Group B: Chevalier, Josephine (Kalos) | Finch, Christopher (Hoenn) | Ryan, Jonathan (Unova) | Ketchum, Ash (Kanto) | Pine, Benjamin (Kanto) | Richardson, Monica (Hoenn)_

 _Format: Round Robin, Full Battles. (Group). Knock-out, Full Battles (Final Round).  
_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And a Happy New Year!


	8. Mega Challenge

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Mega Challenge**

"So, are you travelling with them?"

The sudden voice from her left made Serena jump, and she took her eyes off of the battle going on below. She saw a young woman on skates, wearing appropriate gear; Serena instantly recognised Korrina from the short glance she'd seen of the Gym Leader on the phone, two days back. "Yeah. How'd you guess?"

"Well, Nurse Joy told me you're staying in the same room. That's a pretty big hint, you know." A crash below and a roar told Serena who had won the battle below. "They're not pulling any punches, are they? I was wondering why one of my medicham was requested, but now I see."

The medicham had probably saved a few walls from damage. Bagon had slammed helioptile into a psionic wall at least three times, and grovyle hadn't fared much better against swampert at first. The boys were doing a Full Battle down below, and Max was in the lead. "They… There was a bit of a..."

"Oh, I get it," Korrina interrupted her as she watched bagon and bunnelby start to battle, Mud Shot meeting Dragon Pulse. "They had a fight, and now they're making up like boys." The Gym Leader tssked. "The one in blue – Max, wasn't it? – is in the lead?

Serena did a quick count. Grovyle beat swampert, masquerain beat grovyle, manectric beat masquerain and magnemite, dusclops beat manectric and tied with honedge, bagon beat helioptile and was now fighting bunnelby. "Five to three."

"Is he that much better? They started at the same time, right?" Korrina asked as bagon rammed himself into bunnelby, who threw up a block with his ears, but couldn't stop the slide back."Ouch. That has to hurt."

"I don't know," Serena admitted, glancing over Korrina. The Gym Leader was holding her left hand behind her back, but otherwise looked completely calm. "Max just seemed to have answers for everything today. I think it's closer normally."

Korrina hummed, but remained silent until bagon knocked bunnelby out, prompting a victorious roar and Max being affectionate with his Pokémon for a second. "They're coming here, right?"

Serena couldn't think of a reason why the boys shouldn't, and a minute or two later, Danny trudged up the stairs, looking as annoyed as Serena had ever seen him. "Oh," he said, pasting something a bit happier on his face. "I guess this is yours?"

Korrina accepted the medicham's pokéball, clipping it on her belt as a rather happier Max walked up, without bagon. "That was quite the battle, you two," Korrina said when Max was in hearing range. Danny's face morphed into a scowl for just a second. "I hope you'll give me a good battle too, but that's not why I'm here." She paused for a second, taking three pieces of paper from one of her pockets. "There's an exhibition match this Wednesday in the Gym. I hope you'll be able to attend."

"But we can see your Pokémon?" Max wondered as he took two pieces of paper, handing one to Danny without even looking. "Is that even fair?"

"Knowing the Pokémon and countering them are two different things," Korrina replied calmly as Serena received her piece, revealing it as an invitation. "Besides, this exhibition is going to be with my Mega lucario." She raised her left glove, which she had been keeping hidden, and now Serena saw the Key Stone in the fabric. "So I hope you can attend. It's at eight in the evening."

Knowing Danny and Max, they would go there, Serena was sure of it. She was feeling excited herself: Mega Evolutions were amazing and still very rare to see.

Korrina left, Danny and Max went back inside, but Serena stayed outside for a bit more.

"Hey," she heard after about a minute, and she turned left, seeing Korrina once again. "They're inside, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Korrina had a look Serena couldn't place. "If you gave Max a difficult challenge, what would he do?"

Serena didn't know where the Gym Leader was going with this, but it was an easy question. "Analyse and adapt," she answered, tilting her head left slightly. "Why?"

"Promise me you'll keep this a secret from them. Girl secret."

"Sure.'

"Max is going to face Mega lucario," Korrina told Serena, who felt her jaw drop. "I was watching from over there earlier," the skater added, pointing at another spot almost behind her. Serena had been there; it did give a good view of the small arena below. "Saw that fight with the Hoenn starters. And I want to see how he does against a Mega Evolved Pokémon."

"And Danny?"

Korrina shrugged, before having to rebalance herself as she nearly rolled away. "Gets a normal mid-tier team for someone with one League under his belt. I have some Pokémon that should be a good challenge for his style." She smirked. "Of course, that's still harder than what most his age face. They're really young to have one League completed already."

"How do you know that?" Serena was certain it hadn't been mentioned during the call. "Did you hear from other Gym Leaders?"

Korrina laughed. It didn't feel hurtful, but Serena still blushed. "Oh, we can't talk about every single trainer we see. There's too many of them. They had to use their Pokédexes to make an appointment, and then we have all the data." Okay, now Serena could see the funny bit. Kind of. Good enough. "I'll probably see them Wednesday. Are you coming?"

"Uhuh."

"Okay. See you Wednesday… What's your name?" Serena told her. "Well, Serena. See you Wednesday, and keep those boys out of trouble. We're the smarter part of the population, remember."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Korrina's heracross landed another strong Arm Thrust on Danny's swampert, and Max still didn't understand why Danny had chosen his starter as his final Pokémon. As much as type advantages weren't a be-all-end-all, as Ash had shown them yesterday morning when weavile demolished an emboar through sheer speed, there was no reason for Danny to skip out on using froslass. Heracross hadn't shown any sign of knowing anything but Bug, Fighting, and Normal-type moves while taking out masquerain, and Max knew heracross were unable to learn Foresight like the machop line could. Swampert made no sense at all.

Torrent activating meant Danny would probably still win, but it was a weak showing. For jirachi's sake, Korrina used the same anti-Protect strategy Max had been using for a few months now. They had talked about that strategy a few times as well.

Swampert did end up washing heracross out with a well-aimed Water Gun, and Max was happy for Danny, but he had to wonder what went wrong. Danny was better than this. Their full battle the week before had been better, and Max had won that in dominant fashion thanks to Danny's bad choice to start with swampert.

By the time Max had made it down from the terrace he had been watching from, Danny had already received a Rumble Badge, if the badge case held in his hand was any indication. "Now, Max, are you ready for our battle?" Korrina asked after Max had exchanged a high five with his friend. "I've got a treat lined up for you. Just give me a minute so I can do something."

She skated off and Max watched her go, wondering what that was about. He figured she had to visit the toilet or something: Gym Leaders were human after all. Korrina returned too fast for that, though, leaving Max guessing, but only for a second or two. "Sorry to keep you waiting," Korrina told him, speaking louder to reach the few onlookers: Danny, Serena, Korrina's grandfather, a Gym Trainer or two maybe. "I just had to get this."

It took Max a moment to realise Korrina was holding her left glove up, but only fractions of a second to see that it wasn't the same glove as before. This one held a Key Stone, and something settled in Max's stomach. It intensified when a lucario came out, already wearing the bracelet with the Lucarionite. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am," Korrina said, smiling broadly. "Now, you get three Pokémon to beat lucario, and if you draw – except if you use Destiny Bond 'cause that's cheating – you also get the Rumble Badge." Both she and lucario made a punching motion. "Do you think you have what it takes?"

Unasked for, Max remembered his Dad saying something about challenges over the Yule holiday. " _We Gym Leaders want you to win. Generally, if you're not as arrogant as that Unovan kid,"_ he had said as they groomed slaking. _"I want to challenge anyone who comes here. Sometimes I win, sometimes they win, but none of us_ _Gym Leaders_ _go out with the idea to beat challengers at any cost. Anything I do, they should be able to counter."_

"It's on."

It was en-route to the trainer's box that Max realised this meant two of his Pokémon – honedge and natu – were really not the best idea any longer. He knew for a fact that the lucario knew Foresight, courtesy of the exhibition battle and blaziken's Double Team, which eliminated honedge's advantage. Natu plain didn't have the power to fight it: she was quick and nimble, not powerful or sturdy. One or two hits would knock her out flat.

And ninjask had issues getting in close and relied heavily on Double Team, Max thought as he turned around to face Korrina. Above the arena, he heard Danny and Serena wish him good luck.

He was going to need it.

After a moment's deliberation, he sent out grovyle first. He knew his starter had improved in the hand to hand department over the past few months, but this was a challenge on a whole new level.

He waited patiently as the Mega Evolution took place; lucario being engulfed in the red energy the temporary evolution gave off. It gained a few inches in height, several spikes, more free-moving appendages on the back of its head, and dark-ish red markings on several parts of its body.

A signal from the side, and the onslaught began.

Lucario rushed towards grovyle, effortlessly creating a bone staff from thin air, jumping, and lunging towards grovyle, the staff used two-handed in an overhead swing. Grovyle avoided it, rolling twice and also dodging a sideways swipe after the staff hit the ground. Lucario followed after grovyle a moment later, staying on the ground this time and forcing grovyle to block with a Leaf Blade.

The blade held, but barely so. "Stay on the ground!" Max called as grovyle was forced back by the blows coming fast and hard, lucario also mixing in a leg sweep every few hits. Max couldn't see a pattern to that, but staying in close was going to end up bad. "Quick Attack, create distance!"

Grovyle sped out from underneath another swipe, going to his right. Lucario followed, staff held at the ready in one of lucario's paws, spinning it to deflect the seeds grovyle spat out before slashing it at grovyle's head.

Max's starter had ducked, and managed to send a Leaf Blade into lucario's left leg before being thrown through the air by the staff connecting. He landed safely, blocking the incoming one-handed swing with two Leaf Blades before moving into lucario's guard, twisting the staff out of the Fighting-type's hand and somehow avoiding the other arm trying to hit him.

The weapon fell to the ground and vanished, not connected to its creator any more.

They traded blows: grovyle landing a cut on lucario's torso before receiving a kick to the torso himself, sending him to the ground, where he rolled out of the way of two more Bone Rush staves. These were shorter, more obviously tailored for one hand. "Get ready!"

The staves were smaller, and there was only one arm's strength behind the attacks, but every swift slash was hard to block for grovyle. He kept on the defence, meticulously moving his arm-blades only just enough to block and continuously moving back to stay out of easy kicking range.

Then the Mega locked the weapons instead of removing its own when two – grovyle's right blade, lucario's left staff – met, pushing in.

Grovyle suddenly pushed back, throwing both arms into the staff as he turned sideways, avoiding the other bone and throwing lucario slightly off-balance. It was enough to knock the blocked staff out of lucario's hand, and grovyle immediately grabbed the wrist with both hands, draining energy.

Korrina's Pokémon kicked, but grovyle had seen it coming, lifting himself up on the still outstretched arm and using it to push off as he backflipped into the air.

It looked very cool, but lucario immediately aimed a Metal Sound at where grovyle was going to land, and while the landing wasn't ruined entirely, it was awkward enough to stagger Max's starter for a split second. The delay was enough to allow for a small Aura Sphere to be charged up and sent into grovyle's abdomen, negating the effects of the Mega Drain handily. A second Aura Sphere followed.

And grovyle deflected it up with a quick swipe.

Elated that it worked – they'd been practising it on and off on their own for a few weeks – Max saw lucario try one more Aura Sphere, to the same result, before reforming the two-handed Bone Rush staff.

Lucario used it to deflect another round of Bullet Seed as the Aura Pokémon closed on grovyle, resuming the close range combat. This time, it kept its paws around the middle of the staff, probing with quick pokes and prods to find ways around grovyle's guard.

Grovyle's defences held, for a short spell at least, but attacking wasn't an option. Max bit his lip; he knew this wasn't the path to winning and Korrina had full control of the battle.

Then lucario dipped low, the staff rapping grovyle's ankle quick and hard. Instincts told grovyle to protect his ankle, but that left his guard open, and lucario immediately took the staff in one hand and lit the other hand up with an attack, landing a powerful punch that sent grovyle flying several feet through the air, following immediately.

A swift recovery let grovyle avoid the lunge, even as Overgrow activated. "Leaf Blade!"

Large empowered blades sprang from grovyle's arms, and quick slashing motions forced lucario to block them. No matter how quick grovyle was, though, lucario was always faster, using minimal motions to manoeuvre the staff into just the right position to keep the Grass-type from landing painful cuts.

The staff was maintained by lucario's energy, so hitting it was good, but it wouldn't be enough. Max knew he needed more to defeat Korrina. "Grovyle, middle!"

Lucario blocked grovyle's attempt to get at its paws with a Leaf Blade, but the staff was now vertical, unable to block grovyle's other arm reaching around to the Fighting-type's shoulder.

Finally, a sound of pain from the opponent. The retaliation was brutal: a poke and a jab with the staff, both in grovyle's stomach, and while he was staggered, the staff swept his legs before a punt kick sent grovyle sprawling to the ground near Max.

"Enough," Max said, speaking up to reach the referee. "Grovyle's out." He walked on to the field, shields parting to accommodate his passage, and he knelt by his starter, who was trembling with pain. Still, he smiled when Max heaved him into a sitting position. "You were amazing," Max said, studying grovyle's front. The attacks hadn't broken skin, but there was some discolouration on the red hide and the green band. That'd bruise. "You've improved so much since December." He made to return grovyle, but the sight of his pokéball made grovyle shift, eliciting more obvious pain. "What is it?"

"Vyle, gro-gro."

The tone and grovyle's weak gestures from his head to the arena gave Max an idea of what was up. "You want to watch?" he asked, and grovyle confirmed it. "Okay. Can you walk?"

It was slow, and Max had to keep a steadying hand on grovyle's shoulder, but the Grass-type settled against the wall after a minute or so.

The time-out had given lucario some rest, Max knew, but some things were more important. The Glittering Cave incident had made that clear. "Time for round two," he muttered, holding up his second pokéball, containing the first Pokémon he had ever caught. Sorta. "Baltoy, it's your turn!"

It was a shame baltoy and lairon hadn't worked out how to teach the former Earthquake yet – the attack always faltered or was some weak rip-off that wouldn't make a toddler fall over – but Max had confidence baltoy could weaken the lucario enough for his third Pokémon to come through.

He wasn't delusional enough to think baltoy was going to win it for him. Not unless it evolved into claydol and learned Earthquake mid-battle, and he was lucky on top of that.

Predictably, lucario rushed in the moment the battle resumed. Perhaps Korrina felt a baltoy couldn't stop her Pokémon, and normally, she'd be right. Lucario were about as heavy as Danny's aron had been, and were Steel-types with their many, many resistances.

But they had exposed soft tissue, unlike aron and many other Steel-types. "Psychic spike, stomach."

Lucario ran straight into the concentrated psychic energy, sort of impaling itself on the spike. It took the attack better than grovyle had a few days back, but it was staggered long enough for a Rock Tomb to erupt from underneath, forcing the lucario back and buying baltoy enough time to layer a Light Screen dome.

Lucario destroying the rock with an Aura Sphere was fine, and the Light Screen further diminished the attack as it homed on baltoy. The result was an attack that baltoy ignored, instead throwing a Shadow Ball at the Fighting-type.

It missed, but the dodge forced lucario away from baltoy a bit more. "Cosmic Power," Max told his Pokémon.

Baltoy concentrated, a short shimmer of stars visible around it. Between it and Light Screen, the next projectile sent its way – the green colour telling Max it was a Dragon Pulse rather than an Aura Sphere – didn't even make baltoy hesitate in its levitation, and a second Dragon-type attack met with a Shadow Ball, to explosive results.

"If that's what you do," Max muttered as smoke obscured his sight, baltoy moving back a tiny bit to give lucario less chance to sneak up. "Shadow Balls, low spread."

Four purple balls skimmed the ground, picking up dust and debris in their wake before vanishing into the cloud. There was a sound of annoyance that told Max lucario had been hit, which had been more than he had been expecting, but the retaliation was swift as a Metal Sound pierced the Light Screen, forcing baltoy to abandon the attacks.

Unfortunately for lucario, the Light Screen did have a slight sound dampening effect, and lucario's attempt to rush, looking to punch baltoy with a paw glowing orange was averted as baltoy threw a wide area Confusion pulse around. It didn't stop lucario, but the Aura Pokémon did get knocked just off course, allowing baltoy to barely avoid the attack with some quick movement, a Shadow Ball already dancing on its arms.

Lucario turned around a few feet away from Max, deflecting the attack to the side with a precise jab, but Max had noticed something while Korrina's Pokémon was near.

Its left arm was… Not looking good. When lucario had executed its turn, the arm had looked like it flopped behind with inertia. Max remembered grovyle landing a harsh slice on it earlier, but he had had no idea it had done that much damage. "Lucky hits," he mumbled, quickly formulating a plan to exploit the new weakness as baltoy forced lucario away with three visible stakes of psionic energy. "Try to hit its left shoulder."

It wasn't going to work; lucario would guard the hurt spot, but that would create openings, and sure as that, when lucario made another run in to try and land a punch, a carefully manipulated Shadow Ball, thanks to baltoy's Confusion, forced it to deflect the orb.

Baltoy didn't need Max's order of Rock Tomb to drop to the ground to make a slab of rock appear underneath lucario's feet, and the Aura Pokémon was launched into the air.

It recovered rather well, firing off a quick Aura Sphere that blocked a cheeky Shadow Ball follow-up while landing on its feet, but it was yet another hit.

Baltoy collapsed the rock into rubble before sending the debris outwards, and then things happened really fast.

Lucario ignored the debris pelting it, instead gathering a larger and more powerful Aura Sphere that went straight through the diminished Light Screen. It barely lost any power, and while baltoy had the defensive boost of Cosmic Power, the attack wasn't really aimed at it.

It was aimed at the ground.

The explosion rocked baltoy, and it needed half a second to stabilise itself, having braced against a direct attack. That time was costly, as lucario was on it with purple claws already visible over its paws. The Shadow Claw punch launched baltoy into the air, and lucario leapt off after baltoy, intent on landing more hits.

"Psychic spike, shoulder!" Max yelled to his flying Pokémon, and baltoy abandoned its attempts to stabilise itself to focus its energy.

Lucario yelped with pain as the spike pierced into the shoulder, but it kept on going, slamming another Shadow Claw into baltoy, and without baltoy stabilising itself, the attack launched it halfway down the field, where it landed hard as lucario executed a perfect three-point landing near Max.

Max returning baltoy was done as soon as the referee ruled it out, but while returning the pokéball to its place on his belt, Max saw the area he had left grovyle at, off to his right. Apparently, someone had brought down a chair for grovyle to sit on, and there was a second chair for Max's second Pokémon.

He walked over, releasing a groggy baltoy from its capsule, and Max knelt by the low chair, looking at his second Pokémon. "Thank you for trusting me," Max said, thinking of the last move he had made baltoy do. "Watch if you want, or rest up."

He heard baltoy's foot scrape the chair seat as it levitated itself into another position. Max glanced over when he had returned to the box, his third and final Pokémon ready to be released, and saw that the small Psychic-type was watching, same as grovyle.

"Manectric, let's show her what we're made of!"

Max suppressed a chuckle as he realised he was using his three oldest Pokémon to fight. Funny little coincidence, but now was not the time to think about that.

It was time to win a Rumble Badge.

Manectric's opening move of a wide-area Thunder Wave deterred lucario's attempt at rushing in as the electricity threatened to lock up some muscles, and a quick Thunderbolt forced the lucario back a few steps.

Max couldn't be completely sure, not at the distance lucario was at, but the left arm looked utterly useless. That, he decided, was the way he was going to have to win. Even now, lucario's attacks still looked plenty powerful, and it didn't show a lot of signs of tiring out naturally. A knock-out was his best bet. "Draw it in, and block Aura Spheres," Max told manectric, even as he saw the first of the homing projectiles form already. "Thunderbolt them, and keep moving."

The canine broke into a lope. She was fast enough to dodge any Dragon Pulses lucario might try to use, and she was far enough away to avoid any of them that lucario might try to lead into her path. Meanwhile, the less resilient Aura Spheres were deftly dismantled by quick arcs of electricity, with manectric only pushing the bare minimum needed into blowing the spheres up as far as Max could tell.

He had forgotten about Metal Sound, though.

The harsh noise assaulted manectric, causing her to seize up, allowing a Dragon Pulse to land. She flew through the air, landing on all four feet and avoiding a second wave of Metal Sound as she jumped left, retaliating with a sharp crackle of electricity.

Lucario launching a Dragon Pulse instead of coming in close like it had done to baltoy made Max assume it wanted to stay far away. "Going to need to get in close," Max told manectric.

"Tric!" the canine replied as she disrupted an Aura Sphere. She didn't wait for Max to give another order as she launched herself into her favourite combination attack of Spark and Quick Attack.

She met a glowing fist, but while it probably hurt, lucario didn't come off free. Inertia carried manectric into it and the electricity manectric had built up sought the path of least resistance out – through lucario's body. Sadly, the Fighting-type was able to kick manectric off in the scrap, but both Pokémon looked like they took some good damage there.

Lucario fled from two quick Thunderbolts, coming close to Max's position as manectric chased. It didn't stay put for long, but Max could confirm the left arm being useless.

Then Max's sight lit up with a flash of electricity splashing against shields two feet away from his eyes.

For maybe ten seconds, or an eternity, Max couldn't see anything, his eyes overwhelmed by the sudden light. He heard manectric yelp as an attack probably hit her, and as his vision returned, spots dancing in it, he heard lucario roar in return amidst what sounded like a Thunderbolt.

A Quick Attack made a Metal Sound ineffective, but a Dragon Pulse intercepted the Thunder Wave sent back in return. The two fighters kept moving, circling each other around the middle of the arena, trading attacks whenever one of them thought they had a good shot.

Max blinked a few more times to get his vision back completely, and focused on lucario. It was still protecting its left side, blocking all attacks manectric sent its way while sending only safe and quick Aura Spheres back. Manectric, on the other hand, was working as fast as Max had ever seen her, mixing Thunderbolts and Thunder Waves up with almost reckless abandon, only blocking the bare minimum of what was needed.

At this rate, her electricity would run out before lucario would slip up, Max felt. It was a good strategy, but it wasn't working. "Stop attacking!" he shouted across the field.

Manectric obeyed immediately, giving Max precious seconds to think up a plan. All ranged attacks were being blocked, and getting up close and personal with a lucario was a bad idea.

A thrown staff was blasted clean out of the air, landing near lucario before dissipating.

Ah, idea. Why hadn't he thought of that earlier? "Discharge!"

Manectric rushed in, jumping over a Dragon Pulse as her fur lit up with the uncontrolled electrical Discharge. Lucario was ready, aiming a Metal Sound at her, but the attack was too far through and all Metal Sound did was make manectric lose her concentration in holding the attack back.

Yellow spread in all directions, engulfing lucario and stopping the Metal Sound. Manectric landed harshly, but sprang up immediately. "Thunder Fang!"

With a snarl so loud Max could hear it from fifty feet away, manectric jumped onto the staggered lucario, landing on its head and forcing it to the ground as she bit down on lucario's injured shoulder, pushing as much electricity into it as she could.

She flew off as a surprisingly powerful punch hit her in the flank, but a red aura _shattered_ at the same time. That could only mean…

"Lucario is unable to battle. Manectric wins."

Max saw Korrina enter the field as he did, but lost sight of her as manectric barked happily beside him. He sat down on the ground, hugging his canine and ignoring the short zaps of electricity she was leaking. "You did it girl," he said, rubbing her belly gently, feeling his hand rise and fall rapidly with her panting. "That was great work."

Grovyle and baltoy joined them, and Max removed both arms from manectric, throwing one around grovyle, carefully, and the other leant forward to touch baltoy. Manectric laid down beside him, her head half-leaning on his thigh. "Thank you all so much," Max told them. "You were completely awesome."

"Yes, they were," Korrina agreed, and Max looked up, seeing the Gym Leader tower over him. She was smiling, as always, and lucario stood beside her, looking decidedly hurt, but happy as well. "That was very clever, focusing on lucario's hurt shoulder like that. You found that weak point, and used it. Just the way you should fight a more powerful Pokémon."

Korrina looked on as Max carefully stood up, placing one hand on grovyle's head and one in manectric's mane. Baltoy leant against his right calf with a portion of its weight. "That was tough," he admitted. "Lucario was brutal at punishing openings."

Max heard running footsteps behind him, and he didn't need to turn around to know whose they were. "You did it!" Serena shouted as she joined the group, Danny a few steps behind her. "Congratulations!"

"I think," Danny started before a sneeze interrupted him. "Sorry. I think you're better than me again. Like, way better, not the normal better."

Max rolled his eyes out of sight of his friends, though Korrina saw him, smiling and winking ever so slightly. "Well. You were both better than what I put up, so you both get this Rumble Badge," she said, producing two of them out of nowhere. "Oh, and Danny?" she added, making the teenager look at her. "Don't sell yourself short. I used to do that too, and it caused me, and lucario too, all sorts of trouble."

"Oh?" Serena replied. "Like what?"

"Lucario going out of control in Mega form," Korrina told them lightly, scratching her Pokémon on the head to soothe it. "It took some work for us to fix it." Then, softer, though Max was certain she meant them to catch it, "It also took a lot of work to fix the arena."

The group laughed merrily, even lucario.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Ash nodded to himself as he returned charizard. The match had slowly tilted in his favour over the previous nine Pokémon, leaving him with two left. His opponent, the runner-up in the most recent Indigo League: Monica… something from Hoenn, only had one Pokémon left. All Pokémon were completely fresh and the field had once been a grass field. Then Monica's simisear and later Ash's own charizard had happened, and by now, it was little more than a barren arena that had a bit of burnt grass on it. No hiding, nothing to hide behind, just straight up battling. Just the way Ash liked it.

They had to select both Pokémon at the same time, but no matter what Monica was going to send out, Ash was confident his Pokémon could beat hers. She may have been his newest Pokémon, but she hadn't been used at all during the tournament yet.

Ash's absol and Monica's jynx took to the field, and Ash felt a brief moment of pity. Jynx could still affect the terrain with her Psychic powers, but absol was straight up immune unless Miracle Eye was used. Ash wasn't sure jynx could learn that.

Max or Gary would know and plan around it, but he didn't care. There was a battle to win.

" _Is that a MEGA STONE tied around absol's neck?"_ the announcer roared. _"Is this the Pokémon Ketchum's Mega Ring is for?"_

The answer to that, Ash thought as he started to concentrate, was obvious.

Absol's Mega Stone and Ash's Key Stone began to glow simultaneously as Trainer and Pokémon concentrated on what they were to each other: partners, friends, allies, _equals._ They weren't just Trainer and Pokémon, they were two beings working in tandem, trying to protect as much of the world from disaster as they could, seeking it out to help those caught by it.

A rush of energy slipped from the Key Stone, throbbing around Ash's wrist.

Whether the threat was of a Pokémon or of humans, or both, that didn't matter. They _would_ be there to shield the bystanders, to bring people to safety, to stop the rampage, to eliminate the threat. Ash and absol had done that, and would do that until they could no more, and then they would try anyway. Giving up was not an option.

The Key Stone energy met the Mega Stone energy, connecting with the comforting shock and jar, and pink-red erupted.

Mega absol stretched out and howled to the night sky, her wing-like fur bristling as power coursed through her.

A simple motion of his right hand set her in motion as she started running, veering right, then abruptly dodging left, right, left to dodge a trio of quick Ice Beams, easily skipping over the trails of ice that had been put down. Her horn glowed a dark purple, releasing a Night Slash that spiralled through the hastily created icy block jynx threw up.

A Quick Attack let absol avoid half the field breaking out in Grass Knots, and she jumped over the second round, releasing a Psycho Cut with a fierce nod of her head, allowing it to block an Ice Beam with a small explosion. She glowed blue as she landed, before jumping away again from the rushing jynx. The Ice-type's lips were glowing pink – Draining Kiss – and absol had decided tripping over a Grass Knot on landing was a better proposition than having her energy drained. "Fire beats Ice," Ash reminded his Pokémon.

The next rush towards absol, the jynx this time aided in her movement by one of the icy paths she had created earlier, was stopped by a Flamethrower. The Psychic deflected it upwards, but jynx had not enough time to redirect it back as absol launched another Night Slash from a greater distance. Monica's Pokémon avoided it with a deft and minimal dodge, but absol was on the move, continuously closing on on jynx as well as launching attacks from all angles, using her better speed and better mobility to great effect.

The wind was already starting to pick up, slightly surprising Ash, but he could work with it. "Pressure."

Absol accepted Ash's suggestion without hesitation, switching from larger and more powerful Night Slashes to a mixture of weaker Night Slashes and the occasional Psycho Cut to mess with jynx. Monica's Pokémon was better at blocking these, throwing up shield of ice after shield of ice, reusing the debris of one shield for another and reusing that debris to spray where she thought absol was going to be with icy needles.

Except absol was never there, always out of range by at least a few feet, if not more. Whatever her talents, precognition wasn't one of the jynx's, and it was absol's best skill.

The winds turned harsh, and Monica must have recognised what was about to happen as she ordered jynx to create a large ball of ice around herself as a shield after absol was standing down the wind.

It was a good idea, but absol had foreseen it and had adjusted her Future Sight so that it came from above her, not from behind jynx. Future Sight cracked the dome, and an almighty Night Slash shattered it, sending its creator flying uncontrollably, her path tracked by Mega absol, who sent an impeccably timed Night Slash skimming over the ground to coincide with jynx's landing.

The Flamethrower follow-up was perhaps too much.

Fight over, absol went back to her normal state, and the strain of maintaining the evolution vanished. Ash's face appeared on all six of the big screens around the arena, along with his final placement in the group: second, very closely behind Josephine. If only he hadn't lost that first match against her. Monica had ended up third with this result, and while that was still good, only Ash had a shot at winning the tournament still.

Three hours, a shower, a post-battle press conference, and a celebratory dinner later, Ash was on the phone with the one travelling companion that wasn't in Kanto right now. "So that's Mega absol, huh," Max said by way of greeting, a brown-haired girl sitting in vision, but remaining silent. Serena never spoke much. "That was some slick dodging. Mega Evolution amplifies absol's disaster senses?"

"Probably," Ash said, having heard Gary express the same sentiment earlier that week. "And hello to you too. Danny not here?"

"He's ill," Max replied, concern flashing across his face. "It's… I know it's probably just a bug, but he was coughing his lungs up last night, and the fever..."

Ash felt a tap on his shoulder, and he stood up, allowing May to sit down in the chair. "He'll be fine, Max," the boy's sister said soothingly. "It sounds like he has the flu. Does he just want to rest in bed and does walking hurt?"

"Uhuh," Max nodded. "He was tired after walking back from the Gym yesterday."

"See? Flu," May told her brother. "Unless you had to hike for this Gym too."

Max shook his head while Serena smiled a tiny bit in the background. "Beach walk for this one, sis. Only reachable at low tide. Thank jirachi the Center has rubber boots for rent." He reached into his pocket. "And yes, both of us won. See?"

"Max beat a Mega lucario for his badge," Serena piped up, and Ash's attention immediately snapped to the brunette. "It was amazing! It really packed a punch, but Max was better."

Max was smiling from ear to ear, clearly proud of what he had achieved. "Korrina – the Gym Leader – decided Mega lucario against three of my Pokémon was my challenge. It was hard, but grovyle, baltoy, and manectric pulled through. Grovyle wounded its shoulder, baltoy made that arm useless, manectric finished it off." He leant back in his chair, looking smug, and Ash couldn't blame him. Beating any Mega was difficult, and lucario had a habit of hitting hard and fast, so disabling an arm was a great strategy. "By the way, sis, how's your Ribbon hunt going?"

"One for now, and second in another one," May informed Max. "But Contest season hasn't really started yet. I'll get my Ribbons, count on it."

Max made to reply, but May's Pokénav went off, and she left, but not before sounding surprised that Drew was calling her. "Your next opponent is from Sinnoh, right? Daniel?" Max asked unnecessarily. Ash would have bet good money Max knew that better than he himself did. "Does he have a Mega?"

"Don't think so." Ash tried to remember if he had seen something like a Mega Ring, but all he remembered was the man wearing long-sleeved shirts all the time. "He did get first in the other group with five wins." And some of those had been dominating. Wesley hadn't stood a chance, to say the least. "But that doesn't mean he's unbeatable."

Max smiled, and the call ended soon after, with Max and Serena wishing Ash good luck for the battle the next day. It reminded Ash that he couldn't use weavile – Nurse Joy had taken one look at the agile Pokémon and said that the burns she had sustained were too serious to heal in anything under 48 hours. She was the only absent Pokémon, though, and weavile would be available for the next match.

"Do you know what was wrong with Max?" May asked as she came back to the lobby, tucking her Pokénav away. "Worrying like that isn't like him. About Danny, I mean."

"Maybe he's just being you. You know you worried about him whenever he was ill."

"Yeah? I'm his sister. I'm allowed to do that. It doesn't work like that for friends. Especially not boys."

Put like that, May had a good point, but a nagging doubt remained.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _The final of the inaugural Champion's League will be between Sinnoh's Daniel Black and Kalos's Josephine's Chevalier. Both first-placed seeds defeated their opponents in the semi-finals. Black won 6-4 in the Kanto Indigo Stadium over local hero Ash Ketchum, while Chevalier edged out a win 6-5 over Karen Peterson from Unova, in a match that went down to the absolute wire. For detailed reports, see pages 14 and 15._

From: Home Regions Journal (Kanto edition), March 12th.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Mega Evolutions make a return. We are in Kalos, after all. We'll see plenty more of it before all is said and done.


	9. Precious Stone

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Precious Stone**

It was hard to believe they had been in Kalos for two months now. It hadn't felt like two months, though James was uncertain whether it was slower or faster. Setting up a company from the ground up was challenging, but also surprisingly boring at times. Paperwork was involved, and the false fronts did not make that easier. Nevertheless, Phlis Company was aimed at promoting trade of technological prowess between Kalos and Kanto at first, though the boss – both James and their boss – had plans to expand to Johto in the near future.

After all, what better way to expand one's influence than through money and technology? James had been born into money, and he knew full well its power, and technology was a staple of his particular group in Team Rocket. Admittedly, it had mixed results, but ever since they stopped focusing on that blasted pikachu, things had been looking up for them. It was decidedly healthier, easier on the nerves, and it involved less chewing out by the boss.

And if he were honest, giving him the role of overseer of the new company was a dream come true, and the verbal play that came with possessing copious amounts of money was surprisingly easy to fall back into, as much as he hated the lifestyle itself. He could talk the talk and walk the walk for the glory of Team Rocket. Perhaps it wouldn't be that way for always, but it had been James's background that was especially useful for this endeavour. Team Rocket didn't exactly recruit from high society often.

It was around noon, and while he had been up since dawn, he had seen hide nor hair of the other members. Part of that was because he had locked himself in his makeshift office, also known as the basement of their surprisingly spacious Santalune home, and part of that was because Jessie had been up overseeing a shipment of questionable legality until two or three in the morning. Wherever meowth was, he had no idea of. The cat-like Pokémon kept strange hours in general, and James was not certain meowth ran on a regular human 24 hour day.

He found both of them lounging in the living room. Even after two months, it felt weird to see his long-time partner in anything but Rocket clothing or a disguise. Jessie had found herself some fashionable dresses to wear, and combined with a new hairstyle, and his own dyed hair – now dark green – even the twerps would have had problems recognising them.

The talking meowth was a problem, which was why meowth tended to stay inside balancing the books. He was surprisingly adept at that. James pitched in from time to time, but it was more precautionary than actually needed.

Speaking of the twerps… "Is it that time already?" James wondered, taking his customary seat: a deco club chair with dark blue upholstery. It reminded him of one of his favourite chairs growing up. The TV was showing an overhead shot of the Indigo Plateau at night. "How did the other matches end?"

"Dat Monica girl took fifth, dat's all I saw," meowth replied from his customary curled-up position on a black pouffe. "And dere's the twerps all together," he added as they went to a shot of the VIP box, showing the family and friends of the battlers. Most of them were for their old nemeses; James recalled that the opponent was from Unova, and travel to and from there had been dangerous for months.

"Not all of them," Jessie added from the sofa, sipping daintily – or as daintily as she could – from an espresso shot glass. "The youngest twerp isn't there. Still isn't. You'd think he'd be there."

James smirked. "As luck would have it, I know why he isn't there," he informed his partners, causing both of them to jerk their heads in his direction. "Did either of you hear about the Glittering Cave incident with Team Flare, about a month and a half back?"

Jessie shook her head, but meowth put a nail to his lips. "Hmm… Ain't dat the Fossil place?"

"Exactly." James picked up his tablet from the chair's armrest and tapped a few buttons, reaching his mail programme. "As it turned out, one of the scientists is loyal to Team Rocket, and he sent me this when I asked about the group of Trainers that stopped Flare." He cleared his throat. "Three Trainers, young; two boys and one girl. The boys I had seen before: on television in a press conference, last September while on holiday in Hoenn. They had helped the local Gym Leader capture someone high up from Team Aqua."

"So you went an' looked at dat press conference?"

"You know me too well, meowth," James replied as the arena changed fields. Evidently, it'd be a rocky field first. "Either the twerp has a doppelgänger in Kalos, or he's really here." He did recall something about an eerily similar boy…

"This doesn't change our plans," Jessie stated. "Even if one of them is here, what can they do to stop us?"

James shrugged as he put the tablet in sleep mode. "Little. He's a do-gooder, but he's also thirteen at best. He won't understand until it is too late, and even then, we're officially on the straight and narrow." The TV showed a split-screen shot of both battlers. "I put out feelers in the police, but it'll take some time for information to trickle back."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Ash adjusted his hat, ready to release his first Pokémon at the signal. The Rock field first didn't matter: all of his Pokémon could fight on both fields, but this one was perhaps a little better to lead with. "Donphan, I choose you!"

The Ground-type landed with a loud crash, trumpeting her arrival. On the opposite side of the field, a white and purple Pokémon came out, and Ash recognised it as Karen's mienshao. It wasn't unexpected: Karen had used it to lead three times before, and he knew it was a tough battler with a habit of snatching victory from defeat.

But he also knew its weaknesses. It was best up close, but donphan wasn't going to give it traditional hand to hand combat. Karen also didn't have any information on Ash's Pokémon; he hadn't needed to use her before. She'd been a reserve against Jonathan and Christopher.

His plan was simple. "Rollout," he ordered as the battle started, and whatever mienshao opened with, Ash and donphan didn't care about.

The Aura Sphere hit donphan, but the Armor Pokémon just kept on rolling, barrelling down the field in a straight line as mienshao prepared to dodge out of the way. It was waiting for the last second to do so to give Ash's Pokémon no chance to change course. "Adjust left," Ash ordered, hoping it was going to go there.

It did, and the mienshao flew away, landing on its feet and Detecting the next round of donphan passing by, sending an Aura Sphere at the bottom of her rolling form. This did end up throwing her out of the Rollout, but the landing was simple.

Hidden Power forced mienshao to back away, but then donphan started closing the distance on her terms. She stomped through the arena, loudly, as she picked up speed for a Take Down attack, and just as Ash had hoped, mienshao prepared to counter-attack.

It punched donphan right in the snout, but donphan also sent it flying before jumping into a Rollout. Mienshao couldn't alter its path mid-flight, and Ash's Pokémon rolled back to his side of the field afterwards, accidentally chipping part of a rock before easing out of her spin.

Mienshao put its arms together, light green energy enveloping it for a moment. Then it launched itself at donphan, swerving around a Hidden Power before hitting and causing a small explosion that obscured Ash's vision of the rest of the field. Donphan sounded okay.

And then a short jet of water hit her.

The opponent was now a simipour, completing the trio of Unovan monkeys in Ash's last three matches. A worse match-up, but that just was a challenge. "Close in, straight," Ash ordered.

Zig-zagging wouldn't work: donphan was too sluggish to dodge the water sent his way, and so she ran down the field in a straight line, against a steady stream of water that was not to her liking.

The Earthquake knocked the nimble monkey off its feet, though it rebounded quickly, jumping over a second tremor and using an Aqua Tail to block the Hidden Power sent after that. Donphan tried for a Take Down, but that failed to work, as simipour easily jumped away, using superior speed to its advantage.

That was usually Ash's strategy.

The monkeys weren't known for being sturdy, though, and donphan had a trick up her sleeve. "Hide," he ordered, and Ash's Pokémon hurried over to the largest undamaged rock formation, on the left side of the arena. It hid donphan completely, while also providing her with good cover. Water wouldn't crack it, didn't crack it, and an Ice Beam splashed on it.

The Water attack that followed melted the ice, but didn't do much more. Good to know Scald was in simipour's arsenal, though.

Eventually, the Water-type decided it had to bring the fight to donphan, and that was when the Hyper Beam was released. Simipour was too close, unable to dodge, and it was lifted into the air, being thrown back at least fifty feet, skidding harshly across the ground. Donphan attempted to chase after it, but the post-Hyper Beam lethargy worked against her, as simipour was able to get up, a familiar blue surrounding the monkey.

Who knew they could have Torrent for an Ability?

Donphan was returned, but despite being one Pokémon down, Ash felt okay. Donphan had done her job. He had others to finish the fight.

Pikachu was raring to go beside him, but Ash shook his head. "Not now," he told his starter. He wished he could have explained more, but the microphones picked everything up, and he didn't want to broadcast his plan. "Absol, I choose you!"

With practice came ease, and Mega absol took the field once more, immediately going to work by zipping past the Hydro Pump sent her way. The water was so close absol could probably feel it rushing by, but a dodge was a dodge, and she launched a weak Night Slash at the simipour, interrupting another Water attack.

Ash just stood back and waited, scanning the field for things simipour might use to force absol into a bad spot. Absol knew perfectly that staying back was the best option, so it was up to Ash to identify anything that might come out of the blue.

By the time simipour fell – a surprisingly long time later – absol had avoided all but one of the jets of water sent her way, and that one had been on purpose, Ash thought, in order to deliver the finishing blow with a close-range Night Slash. Staying at range hadn't worked; Night Slashes didn't home, and simipour was adept at avoiding attacks efficiently. In fact, the last Night Slash had been the only full-on hit. Maybe one of the earlier attacks had grazed the Water-type, but it was hard to tell at the distance.

Karen's medicham came out, just as Ash had expected. Another nimble Pokémon, and Ash started to think Karen had selected them specifically to deal with Mega absol. That was fine, but he had more up his sleeve than that.

What was that Kalos saying Max had used? Never interrupt your opponent when they're… Something like that. He snapped his mind back to the battle, seeing the referee's flag go down to signal the resumption of the battle. "Counter."

Medicham launched itself forward, feet barely touching the ground as it closed in. Its left hand lit up with a Thunderpunch, but the real danger would probably come from the other hand.

The attempted Force Palm proved as much.

Duck, left, left, right, duck. Absol avoided all attacks, but couldn't attack medicham back as she moved across the field, taking care to not be driven into a corner.

An opening soon appeared, and absol slipped a quick and weak Night Slash in. It splashed on the medicham's thin torso, hindering it just enough for the Thunderpunch to hit one of the rocks on the field. Absol took advantage by zipping away, moving in a semi-circle that allowed her to send a barrage of Night Slashes at her opponent.

Ash had to admit, the medicham was amazing at dodging all the attacks. Vertical slashes were twisted out of, while it was amazingly fast at dropping to the ground and getting back up for horizontal slashes sent at waist-height. A low slash was jumped over, and the follow-up sent high – absol having anticipated medicham jumping in response – met a clap of medicham's hands that released a Hidden Power. The attacks exploded, temporarily obscuring absol's vision of medicham.

Ash could still see it, and he saw blue enveloping medicham and debris on the ground. A field of small pebbles flew at absol, who took all of them to jump over a fierce Force Palm.

Ash was certain the Force Palm would have hit if absol had tried to minimise her profile.

Absol hadn't jumped high, and she landed on medicham with her rear legs, using them to jump off and sending medicham sprawling. It got up, Detecting out of the way of a Psycho Cut and immediately moving to close the gap. Absol was ready, dodging as a mild breeze started blowing through the arena.

"Pressure," Ash countermanded absol, and with a bark and a quick jump away, absol switched from defender to attacker, opening with two diagonal Night Slashes before launching a Flamethrower to throw medicham off.

The fire licked at an arm, but didn't do more, and absol was summarily pelted by the debris around her as medicham threw all of it up several feet. A Focus Blast follow-up missed, the yellow ball curving nastily but ending up on the ground somewhere, and a Hidden Power met a Psycho Cut that easily neutralised it.

A nagging sensation – he recognised it as worry – wriggled into Ash's mind. Medicham was holding out well, and neither party seemed to be able to hit the other overly much. A prolonged fight wasn't in his advantage, though: absol wasn't used to being Mega for too long.

A sudden onrush of wind told Ash that either absol felt the same way, or that she had planned for it. It was hard to tell. "Go in!" Ash ordered, and absol obliged, unleashing a wide scythe of Dark-type energy simultaneously with the incoming Future Sight.

Only for medicham to glow white and red.

Both attacks landed, but Ash didn't care about that. "Out!" he ordered.

It wasn't enough. Karen's gambit worked, and a wide beam of white energy engulfed absol as medicham unleashed the Bide. Endure had allowed it to take the hit, and it had foregone all attempts at defending to maximise Bide's effectiveness. It was a risky move, but one Ash instantly saw the merits of. Karen had probably felt Mega absol was one of the bigger threats she would face, and so she had prepared accordingly. Medicham hadn't used Bide once in the tournament, and Ash had honestly forgotten it could learn the move.

At least Karen's Pokémon was ruled out. Better yet, absol – miraculously, Ash thought – managed to get up. She looked terrible, and the subtle tug from the Mega Ring was…laboured. Somehow.

Still, as long as she could do some damage on the next Pokémon, he could work with it.

Karen's third Pokémon wasn't the mienshao that Ash had been expecting. Instead, another Unovan Pokémon dropped onto the field. Karen's starter darmanitan was here, and ready to wreck the arena.

It had only done so twice before, but it seemed interested in a third, as it opened with a powerful Earthquake that shook the entire arena. Absol somehow avoided the worst of the tremors, but did have to rebalance herself, which gave darmanitan the time it needed to fly in with a glowing arm.

Absol twisted, jumped, and flipped her way out of trouble, with Hammer Arm just inches, if not less, away from her. She used her opponent as a launch pad, unbalancing it and forcing it to put a hand to the ground, next to the hole that had just been created with the one attack.

Two could play at that game, as absol demonstrated with a vicious Night Slash. It grew to about eight feet long, crashing into the ground and creating a twenty foot furrow ending near where darmanitan had been. The next Night Slash only had a ten foot gouge, and that was because it hit the shields on the side, which flared with sudden intensity.

Darmanitan had reached the middle, repeating the Earthquake into Hammer Arm combination, just on the opposite side of the field this time. It tried to adjust for absol's dodging, but she had navigated the tremors better, allowing her a clean jump away into a Night Slash that dug into darmanitan's side.

That was its weakness. Karen liked to use the pattern – Ash had seen her use it in her previous matches and it was effective even if you knew what was coming – but it couldn't take hits well. It was also weak to flying Pokémon, but Ash was willing to bet anything she'd just swap out in that case.

The problem was that it was fully capable of just straight up dealing so much damage first that you could just suddenly lose two Pokémon to it. A third Earthquake combo proved the point, the Fire Punch correctly anticipating where absol was going to be and sending her skidding uncontrollably over the rough terrain.

She wasn't out yet, but it was getting close. Ash saw absol glow a very light green as she stood up, and struck big as her stolen Stone Edge occurred faster than darmanitan's, breaking its concentration and giving absol the time needed to summon another Future Sight attack for help later.

At least, Ash thought it had given her the time, but apparently, it hadn't. Darmanitan jumped on absol, wrestling it to the ground as the Fire-type set itself aflame in a Flare Blitz, burning absol as she was pinned down underneath a thrashing Pokémon.

The Key Stone connection shattered, sending a violent shudder through Ash. _That_ was a feeling he could do without. "Thanks absol," he said as he returned her. "Take a rest." He studied darmanitan and Karen for a second, thinking, hoping this was the right move. "Squirtle, you're up."

The announcer and the audience went wild with surprise. Ash heard it, and had expected it. He hadn't used squirtle yet, and the amount of not fully evolved Pokémon in the Champion's League in general was small. To bring a completely unevolved Pokémon was… Something else. Especially after a Mega Evolution.

Naturally, Ash had done it before with bulbasaur, and the surprise then had been as big as it was now.

But they were the Pokémon Ash trusted. He could have used croconaw or kingler, and maybe he should have, just for extra strength, but they were too slow, and the darmanitan hit hard. Better to not be hit at all, Ash had reasoned, and so squirtle had made it onto his team for this match.

"Up," Ash ordered as the battle resumed, Karen proving predictable with yet another Earthquake. Squirtle retreated into his shell after jumping up, and the darmanitan gleefully went after him, a Hammer Arm ready to hit the Water-type.

Ash grinned. That was the first mistake he'd seen Karen make. Squirtle started spinning in mid-air, expelling vast amounts of water in a Hydro Pump, soaking a large area of the field, darmanitan included. The stream of water pushing against darmanitan also allowed squirtle to avoid the incoming Blazing Pokémon, instead flying backwards and landing in its shell while Karen's Pokémon landed on its face, close to the first gouge absol had created. A Water Gun hit it in the back, but a quick flash of Flare Blitz removed all moisture from the Fire-type's body.

Darmanitan thundered towards squirtle, not caring about the Water Gun that the squirtle was planting in its face, before grabbing him in one hand, other hand glowing as it prepared to punch squirtle's lights out by sending it through the rock formation behind him.

That was the second mistake.

Squirtle spun into his shell, unleashing a second Hydro Pump in less than half a minute at point blank, and although darmanitan let go, it did little to help Between darmanitan's legs and body, and the rocks behind him, squirtle roughly stayed in place while the water blasted the Fire-type, immobilising him with pain.

For a moment, it fought through the pain, landing an Earthquake that sent squirtle flying uncontrollably for a second before he turned Hydro Pump off, after which the landing was rough, but cushioned by his shell.

The landing also didn't matter, as darmanitan had also been hit by a sudden Future Sight – and Ash hadn't even noticed the wind picking up – that had knocked it out. Along with the help of the water, of course.

He returned squirtle, putting him in stasis as per tournament rules, and walked to the bench behind him, where someone had left a chilled bottle of water and a small fruit snack. After giving part of the snack to pikachu, Ash sat down, waiting for the match to resume.

 **~~§~~§~~**

"Da twerp is doin' okay," meowth mentioned as the TV went to a commercial break. "Dat Mega absol is strong. Glad we never saw dat."

James had to agree. If it hadn't been for that downright sneaky move by the medicham, the absol would have run away with the battle. "You'd think he'd expect the counters," Jessie remarked, sending out wobbuffet to emphasise her point. The oblivious Pokémon uttered a few syllables before being returned unceremoniously. "Or has he forgotten us already?"

"Doubtful," James said as an advertisement for the Holo Caster started. "I think he didn't expect it." He made to say more, but the doorbell rang. "I'll get it."

By the time he had walked to the front door and back, after politely telling a pair of Xernean Witnesses that they'd find no converts here, the match was about to resume.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Ash released squirtle again, keeping the capsule at the ready in case it was needed. He expected Karen might lead with something strong against squirtle, and he had counters for that.

It was her ampharos, and Ash signalled he, too, wanted to switch Pokémon. There were limits to what he thought good, and that was one of them.

The fact that sending out torterra would most likely reveal Karen's sixth Pokémon was an added bonus. Information about what your opponent had was useful, Drake had told him over and over again, and Ash saw the merit of it in moments like these.

Her sixth Pokémon was a leafeon. Ash had seen one of those in Sinnoh, courtesy of the fight before his in the Eterna City Gym, and he hadn't recalled much of what they did before looking it up in preparation for the battle.

More importantly, torterra had the best chance of actually winning. Sure, there was charizard, but the moment Ash sent him out, Karen would swap in ampharos. Pikachu and squirtle were at a disadvantage as well – though Karen didn't know squirtle didn't know any Ice-type moves – which left just Ash's second Sinnoh Pokémon. He had evolved rather fast for his kind, but apart from a brief period just after evolving into grotle, he had always been a solid Pokémon in Ash's team.

A flurry of Magical Leaves and a set of Razor Leaves met in the middle, cancelling each other out as an opening salvo. Ash saw leafeon dart away to its left, while torterra stayed put, turning to keep his opponent in view.

Seeing that trying to get into a blind spot wouldn't work, leafeon lit up the leaf on its head, coming in with a Leaf Blade from torterra's side, evading a quick Razor Leaf and striking one of the trees atop torterra before moving away again, circling around and coming in for more of the same. "Now!"

The Earthquake didn't do as much damage to the arena as darmanitan's had done, but it did throw leafeon off as it sprang up, instead leaving it behind torterra instead of above it. Torterra couldn't take advantage because it wasn't a rapidash or something, but leafeon backed off anyway, covering with a short salvo of Magical Leaf that splashed harmlessly on torterra's shell.

Actually… Ash ran through what he had left and what Karen had left while torterra blocked another Magical Leaf and blew up a Giga Drain with Energy Ball. Charizard flew, pikachu wouldn't care, torterra definitely didn't care…. That settled it. "Wreck the arena!"

He had to let a Giga Drain through, but torterra obliged, unleashing three or four Earthquakes, the tremors amplifying each other as the ground tore itself apart, cracks turning into small cliffs or holes. Grass roots dangled where one part of the arena now hung over another, and Ash lost sight of leafeon as shifting rock made it impossible to see through to Karen.

Suddenly, it was a lot more like that time he had let Brock go all-out on creating a mountain-side arena, complete with the danger of rocks sliding down. Any Earthquake could knock it loose, and Ash knew Karen knew that.

After all, he had stolen this strategy off of her darmanitan.

Leafeon showed her head, pelting torterra with a quick few leaves before dodging out of vision again. "Get ready," Ash told torterra, who obliged by swallowing his own Energy Ball, and the tree on his back glowed a soft green as the energy gathered.

More surprised outcries from the announcer and the audience, but Ash was more interested in finding out where the leafeon was hiding. The Verdant Pokémon was clever, not showing itself and being careful in moving to not send any loose rocks tumbling down to reveal its location.

But eventually, it did launch an attack – an Energy Ball that went for torterra's flank. "Left!"

The green aura around torterra's tree explodedas the heavy Pokémon reared up by inches before slamming his weight down.

And the ground _pulsed_.

Vines as wide as Ash's torso erupted from underneath, going every which way, piercing and shoving rock, destroying anything that had survived the Earthquake upheaval. Twisting and turning, they found their target – Karen's leafeon – and slammed it, and themselves, against the barriers, forcing them to brighten to blinding intensity as the ground was rearranged once again. Ash's vision of Karen was restored, but leafeon fell out of sight, as rocks blocked his view of it and the referee.

A Giga Drain that torterra was too slow to react to proved it was still around, but the Frenzy Plant had done work. It popped around a corner near Ash, and he saw that it was looking very frayed, limping slightly before noticing Ash and darting away, not nearly as agile as it had been. "Left, back," Ash said.

Torterra wasted no time in moving, Rock Climb slicing through the formation and sending a glowing leafeon into the air, the light fading as it flew. Ash recognised it as the light of Synthesis, but between the moonless night sky and torterra ramming it, he guessed it hadn't done much.

Leafeon was able to avoid the Razor Leaf, reminding Ash that it wasn't out yet, and the Giga Drain restored some more energy, also eliciting a grunt from torterra.

It was probably best to end it soon, then; torterra wasn't impervious. "Regular."

The pulsing of the ground wasn't as pronounced, and the vines were a bit thinner, but they still slammed into leafeon at just the right angle to send it flying forty feet back into a small cliff that promptly broke, dropping a couple of medium-sized rocks on top of the leafeon.

Torterra's Razor Leaf tore through those rocks, as leafeon had been returned, and a quick look up confirmed that it had been a forfeit.

By the time mienshao was sent out, torterra had lumbered back over to his position in the centre of Ash's half of what was left of the arena.

The Aura Sphere opener met an Energy Ball, creating a small explosion that the mienshao used as cover to move closer, going right where rocks hindered Ash and torterra's vision. "Stay."

Staying turned out to be wrong, as torterra was much too slow to dodge an incoming High Jump Kick without being on the move already, and mienshao was more than willing to bring the fight to close range, avoiding the Grass-type's snapping jaws and Razor Leaves with agile movements and a bit of help from Detect. "Concentrate. Earthquake."

Focusing meant taking another few punches to the flank, but torterra managed to unleash an Earthquake that forced the mienshao off. Sadly, it was able to land safely from its jump, despite the tremors, and the Energy Ball that followed it was dodged with ease, the Fighting-type not even looking at the attack as it moved out of the way, launching up an Aura Sphere as it did so.

The attack connected as Razor Leaves melted, but that only served to activate Overgrow, and Ash knew just how to make use of that.

Annoyingly, mienshao Detected its way out of being hit by most of the Frenzy Plant vines, but a Razor Leaf barrage cut some of the vines above its head, sending large chunks of plant tumbling down onto Karen's Pokémon, who shielded with its arms, but soon abandoned that for getting out of the network of vines.

It did, with some helpful application of attacks, exiting to the back and causing Ash and torterra to lose sight of it once more.

Ash noticed a flicker in the Overgrow. Frenzy Plant had taken a lot out of his Pokémon, and using three in one match was a lot. It wasn't the most they had ever used in such a short period, but it was the most they had used in such a high stakes environment. It was bound to be tiring, and torterra was close to running out of juice.

Worryingly, mienshao also made no visible move, though Ash saw torterra turn his head and launch some small sets of leaves twice. Both attacks did nothing.

Then, suddenly, Ash saw movement to his right, immediately alerting torterra to the incoming High Jump Kick.

The response was a quickly executed Frenzy Plant that faltered after the attack hit torterra in the flank. However, milliseconds after mienshao had connected with torterra, a vine had shot up from underground, slamming it right in the foot and sending it tumbling through the sky. Mienshao anded on its head, knocking it out cold along with torterra, whose energy was finally spent.

Ampharos versus charizard, squirtle, and pikachu. Good odds for any trainer.

He elected to go with charizard first, if only because the lizard-like Pokémon would be disgruntled if he wasn't used. A loud roar announced his presence, and he took to the sky in defiance of his opponent.

First things first. "Vines," Ash yelled up as the battle got under way once more.

The arena promptly turned into a burning hell for anyone not Fire-type and inside the main area of the vines. Sadly, Karen had released ampharos outside of that, but it did limit the Electric-type's movement by making large areas of the field inaccessible for now.

It very much didn't stop ampharos from summoning Thunder to pelt charizard with. Luckily, it was a clear night and Ash's Pokémon only had to watch for hits from below, but any one of them would hurt. This one missed, thanks to a quick beat of wings and a half-roll from charizard, and a blast of Dragon Rage intercepted the next jolt.

Charizard beat his wings a few more times before suddenly diving straight down, spiralling, launching a Fire Spin at the same time. The tornado enveloped the ampharos, but charizard broke it off as more electricity made its way up. It hit charizard, but the attack hadn't been that powerful.

Ampharos blocked a Dragon Breath with a Dragon Pulse of his own, the gem on its head helping as a conduit for that and a Power Gem that narrowly missed charizard's tail. "Distance," Ash ordered, even as ampharos gathered electricity for another Thunder.

The Thunder splashed against the barriers over Ash's head, while charizard circled above the charred remains of the vines. They had burnt out quicker than Ash had expected, and it allowed ampharos to start clearing out the larger and intact plant remnants with quick Thundershocks.

Charizard saw that, and he had apparently had enough of the Light Pokémon. An Overheat came out, blinding in intensity, and ampharos barely avoided it by rolling right, while Karen was blocked from sight by flame splashing on the shields in front of her.

Charizard's follow-up Flamethrower was a direct hit, stopped only when a feeble Confuse Ray floated towards him. Ash's Fire-type wanted nothing of that, not that Ash could blame him. It had caused a rather embarrassing loss a few days back. He flew back up into the sky high above, and Ash took a good look at the hurt opponent. Smoke was coming off of ampharos in small wisps, though it still looked very capable of fighting.

A Dragon Breath met another Dragon Pulse, ampharos pushing slightly more power into it to let the orb pierce charizard's attack, forcing a pair of wing beats up to make the attack not hit.

Straight into a Zap Cannon.

Charizard fell to the ground, desperately trying to gets his muscles to work properly, but as he hit the ground, a Thunder intercepted him, causing an agonised roar. The arena helped a little in grounding the electricity, but it still hurt the charizard a lot, and it was only sheer lock in firing random Flamethrowers that caused the Thunder to actually stop, ampharos having to take a few steps to its right to not be on the receiving end of that.

Charizard forced himself to his clawed feet, the flame on its tail starting to burn brighter, growing with each passing second. Ash was a little surprised to see Blaze active already, but then again, charizard had been under Thunder for at least five seconds. "Go!"

Foregoing flight, charizard launched Flamethrower after Flamethrower, sometimes as a jet, sometimes as just a ball of fire, forcing ampharos to put all its effort into not being hit. The balls were blown up, while the jets were dodged, which caused charizard to switch to sweeping the field with his fire as he lumbered forward.

Ampharos finally found shelter behind a small cliff that had survived the onslaught of Frenzy Plants earlier. It wasn't big, but it was enough to hide the Electric-type fully, and Flamethrower bent around it, but did not pierce through the rock.

After a few seconds and seeing that the Flamethrower didn't work, charizard stopped breathing fire, inhaling deeply before spitting out a different stream of fire. The Overheat was more concentrated, and Blaze offset that it was the second time it was used. It was more than capable of shattering the rock, as ampharos soon found out.

But not before jumping up and launching a Zap Cannon that impacted on charizard's head.

Charizard fell like a rock, howling in pain, thrashing about, while ampharos let out painful wails of its own on the other end. For a moment, neither Pokémon was in any shape to launch an attack, and Ash waited to see which Pokémon recovered first.

It was Karen's Pokémon, and a Power Gem put an end to charizard's fight.

Pikachu clambered up to Ash's shoulder, fur heavily static. Ash ignored it with five years experience of having felt that. "Your turn, buddy."

Pikachu jumped off his shoulder, landing in some of the ashes of the plants and immediately blasting the remains of a vine near him away. Opposite him, ampharos hadn't moved out of the debris of the rocks charizard had obliterated with the Overheat.

It wasn't much of a fight. Ampharos tried, launching Power Gems and Dragon Pulses – both far more effective than electricity – at pikachu, but Ash's starter was everywhere the attacks weren't, pushing Agility to its limit as he moved in closer, tail already beginning to glow silver with Iron Tail.

The Steel-type attack wasn't enough to knock it out, and a Fire Punch forced pikachu away, but ampharos swayed dangerously, barely keeping itself from falling.

Pikachu started charging the attack before Ash called it. "Volt Tackle!"

A cocoon of golden electricity formed around pikachu, before becoming so bright Ash's Pokémon appeared black and white inside of it. A Thunder only fed the move, and a quick zig right made sure Power Gem didn't interrupt it, any debris from the Rock-type move gouging itself into the ground evaporating as it hit the aura ballooning around Ash's Pokémon.

With a deafening bang, ampharos went flying farther than a Pokémon of its weight should when hit by a thirteen pound Pokémon.

Even though it wasn't a tournament victory, third place was pretty amazing in its own right.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max sat on a bench overlooking the Shalour Bay. In the distance, to his right, he could see the edge of the island the Tower of Mastery and the local Gym were located on, currently accessible due to the low tide being around half past three, and bells in the background had rung three a while ago. There was a soft breeze from the sea, but the sky was alternating blue and grey, and when the sun peeked through the clouds, it was pretty decent weather for March. Not as warm as it could be in Hoenn, but they weren't there right now.

Vulpix sure enjoyed it, Max thought as he looked to his left, seeing the vulpix half-curled up on the wood. The fox caught his look, and she nuzzled his hand before going to groom herself. Max restrained his urge to pet her; vulpix brooked no interruptions on that activity, as Serena had once found out. Instead, he cast his mind to his friends, back in the Pokémon Center.

Danny was still ill, but getting better. May had probably been right; it did look like the flu according to Nurse Joy, and there was nothing to that except lots of fluids, simple food, and lots of waiting. Nurse Joy had offered them another room for Danny to sleep in, but Serena had taken that after a short discussion. Max didn't blame her for it: Serena was a nightmare if she didn't get enough sleep and she knew it. When Max had said he was fine with staying in the same room, Serena had jumped to claim the room.

It was a bit silly, but Max felt like he should be there for Danny. He didn't know why it was, but something inside him had revolted at the idea of not sleeping in the same room. If it meant he had less sleep because Danny coughed his lungs out once or twice a night, then so be it. Max had been through worse.

A loud cheer from behind him, somewhere to his left, interrupted his thoughts. He turned, seeing a group of elementary school age children, backpacks and all, wave and cheer at a boy walking down the stairs onto the beach, maybe a hundred feet away. There was something on the boy's left shoulder, but Max couldn't see what exactly.

The boy turned right at the bottom of the stairs, nearly skipping across the sand, happy as anything. The Pokémon on his shoulder seemed happy too, and Max felt a pang of regret.

Always ralts. Always.

Vulpix barked, catching the boy's attention, and another bark, sounding almost commanding, made him walk over. He was short, with reddish and curly hair. "Cool, a vulpix!" the boy enthused, his voice high-pitched. "Does that mean you're not from Kalos?"

"I'm from Hoenn," Max answered, watching the ralts jump into the boy's arms without looking. It was caught without a problem. "And vulpix is too."

"Cool!" The boy sat down next to vulpix, and looked at her. "May I?" he asked Max.

"I'm not the one you should ask." When he got a blank look, Max nodded down at vulpix. "Ask her."

The boy's eyes widened, making him look even younger. How old was he anyway? This was basic stuff. "Vulpix? May I touch you?"

The nuzzle answered that, and he carefully started petting her, using his free right hand to move through vulpix's thicker fur. He didn't look used to it, Max thought, but the happy yip from vulpix as the boy's thumb made circles in her neck spoke of success anyway. "Why were they all cheering for you back there?"

"It was my last day of school," the boy replied, not letting up on the petting. Ralts snuggled into his stomach at the same time. "And us Shalour kids always go to the Tower of Mastery before leaving. I'm doing that today, so I can leave first thing tomorrow. With ralts."

He had to ask. "Is ralts your starter?"

The twin smiles answered the question before any words did. "Yeah. Grand-mère gifted it to me, and the first thing I'm going to do is visit her to thank her." Ralts made a noise of happy agreement. "Is vulpix your starter?"

Max shook his head. "Treecko was mine. He's a grovyle now. Vulpix just wanted to be out, so here she is."

"Oh," the boy said, ceasing his petting of vulpix for a moment. A mewling complaint caused him to resume it. "It – she? - is so soft, and her fur's really smooth. You must take good care of her."

"A friend had a vulpix for a time, and he gave me grooming tips," Max replied, remembering the chat with Brock and the two pages of notepad scribblings somewhere in his bags. He'd memorised them by now, but boy were vulpix picky. "And yeah, she. Using the right gender pronoun just feels better."

"How do you find out their gender? I can't tell if ralts is male or female – they both look the same."

"You ask them?" Max said, holding back a laugh when he saw the boy freeze and sudden realisation dawn on his face. "It's that simple. So, ralts, are you a boy?"

The ralts suddenly jumped onto Max's knee, vaulting over vulpix, and shook its – her – head as she landed. Max brought his left hand to steady her. "I guess that means ralts is a she?"

"She is," Max told his companion as a comforting surge of heat swept through his body. "I'm Max, by the way. Great to meet you."

"Hugo," was the one word reply. "Hey, how old are you? You don't sound old, but you really know a lot."

Max turned around, seeing the bell tower in the distance. It wasn't quite four yet, but it was close. "I'm twelve for another eight hours."

Hugo gasped. "Your birthday is tomorrow? So is mine! We're birthday pals!" They shared a grin. "Ralts likes you."

Max looked down, only now really noticing that ralts had sat down on his knee, legs on either side, and that he was rubbing her back gently, like the young ralts back in September. That explained a few things. "Well, ralts like positive emotions, and I like ralts." Both in general and this specific one. "So it's a loop." He gently lifted ralts up on his hands, looking the Feeling Pokémon in the eyes. She looked back at him, calmly, trust radiating from those red eyes he had dreamed of so many times. "If you're good to your ralts, she'll be good for you. Care for her, and don't be afraid to do what's right, and you'll have a friend for a lifetime."

"That's what grand-mère said. Sort of," Hugo told him, and Max felt ralts agree. "Do you have a ralts of your own?"

Max put ralts down on the bench next to vulpix before looking the younger boy straight in the eyes. "I tried to save one from a poacher, but I couldn't." Vulpix barked, and ralts whined softly, causing Max's stomach to contract involuntarily. Hugo also had a sad look on his face, and a glance down told Max ralts was probably feeding some of her emotions to him. "They are some of the best Pokémon out there if you care for them. Will you do that, Hugo?"

"Yes," the boy answered solemnly, but without hesitation. "I promise."

"Then keep that promise. If not for me, for ralts."

As Hugo walked off into the distance, ralts riding on his shoulder once again in a way that reminded Max of Ash and pikachu, the older boy hoped that Hugo would be able to keep his promise, unlike himself.

Of all the things he had done, seen, experienced in the past year, that was his biggest regret by a mile.

Suddenly, vulpix got up, running off over the sand, left, in the opposite direction. "Where are you going?" he yelled as he started running as well, the sand shifting underneath his shoes giving him trouble in keeping up. "I can't go that fast!"

Surprisingly, vulpix slowed down a bit, but only enough so that Max could keep at the same distance, and they ran for a good five minutes. By that time, Max's sides were starting to feel warm: he may have been fit, but running on sand was a nightmare and what felt like half the beach in his shoes didn't help. They'd already reached the Shalour City limits, and the hills that they had come through on the way there were now to Max's left.

Then, suddenly, vulpix jumped up onto the rocks, and Max stopped to climb up the nearly shoulder-high ledge. It took a moment, but he did so without too many problems, and he saw vulpix with her nose to the ground, sniffing something out. "What is it?" Max asked, but his Pokémon ignored him, instead running off – at a slower pace, thank jirachi – upwards.

Max had to climb up two more ledges and even jump a small crack, but then, as he turned a corner he had seen vulpix go around a few seconds before, he saw his Pokémon sit on her haunches in a dead end. The walls around them went up at least twenty feet, and they were sheer with barely any protruding rocks. "Why did you bring me here, vul..."

Max stopped talking because vulpix put her paw on something. Something round, yellow, something obviously not part of the rocks around them.

It was unmistakably a Mega Stone.

Max moved to pick it up. It was chipped slightly in one place, over a red band inside the blue Mega Evolution symbol, but otherwise, it looked in perfect shape. "How did you-" he started to ask, but a _flicker_ right in front of his face interrupted him, forcing his eyes shut. Something moved past – whizzing, light – but by the time Max opened his eyes again, there was no sign of anything.

There was, however, a piece of paper floating gently in the wind, spiralling down on some unseen current. Max grabbed it.

 _0911 1440_

He had no idea what it meant.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Your efforts are expanding Team Rocket adequately. Revenue is outpacing projections by approximately twenty percent on the legal front, and our aftermarket products are proving to be popular. Provided you continue this diligent service, your importance in the organisation will rise in accordance._

 _Your mention of this 'Team Flare' is worrying. Keep an eye on them, and hinder them should their interests run counter to ours._


	10. Butting Heads

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Butting Heads**

The Champion's League was over, and people were leaving the Indigo Plateau. Ash had already seen his mother, Professor Oak, Gary, Tracey, and May off earlier that morning as they all left for Pallet Town. Ash would follow them in a day – all participants still had a press conference at three in the afternoon. Whoever set that up had lost his mind, Ash felt, but it was what it was.

The fact that people were leaving, or had already left, meant that he saw very few people on his way to the Indigo Stadium itself, and the security guard waved him through without any issue. Once inside, Ash went left and down, into the stadium catacombs, eventually coming across one of the locker rooms. The door was apparently locked, as the woman trying to open it was grumbling about. "Stupid… Why would… Oh, hello Ash," Karen said as she noticed her opponent walking up. She abandoned her attempts to open the door for a firm but short hug. "What brings you here?"

"The same thing as you, Ms. Peterson," Lance said from behind Ash, nearly causing him to jump. Pikachu didn't bristle, which meant _he_ had sensed Lance, at least. "Inside, if you please," he added as he opened the door.

All of them filed in, Ash and Karen taking seats on the benches lining the outer walls while Lance locked the door behind him. "Why are we here?" Karen demanded as Lance turned around to face them.

"Ms. Peterson, Karen," Lance started characteristically serious, "please give me your honest opinion of my Unovan colleague, Alder. _Completely_ honest," he added as Karen hesitated.

"A complete and utter incompetent shitstain who's done as much as Team Plasma to ruin our country," was Karen's answer. Ash felt his eyebrows raise, and Karen noticed. "Inaction is worse than ineffective resistance. With Champions like him, Unova needs no enemies." She turned to Lance. "Candid enough?"

"Quite," Lance said drily. "A second question. Have you been following the news?"

Karen's glare answered that perfectly, Ash felt. "Of course. It's my country."

"Then you have heard that Opelucid has been reclaimed," Lance said, and Karen confirmed that. "Sadly, that victory won't bring more, unlike what the sanitised reporting will tell you."

"Because nobody has any Pokémon," Karen replied, drawing an approving nod. "I have family in Opelucid. All Pokémon were collected a year ago. Ostensibly set free, but that's rapidash shit." She paused, but Lance didn't speak up. "What I don't get is why no other countries helped."

"Alder. Again," Lance told her, sighing. "It was an internal matter, and if this was what the people of Unova wanted… Yes, I agree with that assessment." Karen had made a disgusted face, fake-puking as well. "I gather you are going back to Unova now to lend your aid to the government?"

"Correct. I don't know what one person can do, but..."

"More than you think," Lance said as Karen shrugged. "But not in government hands. They will put you somewhere to defend and hold, to wait while strength is gathered for another push, only to end up in this exact situation, with perhaps one more large city freed. Perhaps Humilau or Nacrene. It is a sensible strategy for containment, but it will not lead to Team Plasma's demise any sooner."

"You don't agree with the government," Karen intuited.

Lance gave an approving nod. "As I stated, it's good for containment, but I've never been of the opinion that a good defence is the best offence in all situations. Sometimes, you need to take a risk and push when people think you cannot."

"Elegantly put, but what would you have me do?"

"All intelligence suggests that Team Plasma has loose but sufficient control over the outlying areas, and a few strongholds of importance. It would stand to reason that they keep all stolen Pokémon in one of those locations. They would be guarded, but not as heavily as one might expect. Too many guards draw attention, and they are not that secure. The revolt in Mistralton proved that. A strike team could do work, but all high-level Trainers currently in Unovan government service are bound up," he elaborated. "However, if a pair of Trainers were to go to Unova on their own, as it were, then the dam might break."

"Black ops," Karen said with finality, folding her arms. "You're talking black ops. Who are you really affiliated with, Grand Champion of Kanto? The International Police? Whatever acronym the Kanto espionage organisation goes by?"

"Close, but not quite. The answer is the G-men, and yes, even in this role, I have offered help. I was still refused." Lance took a piece of paper from an inner pocket. "I need to know now. Are you in?"

"I would sell my soul to darkrai to get Team Plasma out."

"Don't," was all Lance said in reply. He unfolded the paper, revealing it to be a map of Unova, various areas shaded. Three circles were highly visible inside the blue-shaded area – the area Team Plasma controlled, Ash noticed. "These towns are the Plasma strongholds. Tactically, it makes sense for the storage to be located in one of those locations."

"You want us to find out where," Ash spoke up for the first time, drawing attention to him. "You can't free the Pokémon without knowing where they are," he defended his observation. "But how do we do that?"

Lance's stare went far-away for a second. "The easiest way is to… persuade a Plasma grunt. They don't recruit like Magma or Aqua or Rocket, and we don't have the time for that in any case. I believe you have a hypno, Karen?"

"Damn," Karen replied, whistling between her teeth. "Black ops indeed. Yes, hypno will do nicely. And once we have the information, we feed it to you?"

"To your contact in Unova," Lance corrected. "I believe you've met Drayden before."

"Dragon Trainers flock together," Karen mused. "Alright. Let's do this."

About ten minutes later, Karen left, and Ash made to leave, but Lance put a hand on his shoulder. "Ash. One thing. You cannot bring pikachu."

The bottom fell out of Ash's stomach, though he figured Lance had a good reason for the statement. "Why?"

"His disdain for pokéballs would be detrimental. We both know he cannot stand to stay inside one for more than a few hours, but a pikachu walking alongside humans will draw attention. It is better if we avoid that situation." He paused. "I know this is much to ask, but…"

"You wouldn't ask if it was avoidable," Ash finished for him. He knew how Lance worked in that regard. It had come up before. "Alright. I'll tell him. Any other restrictions?"

"Stealth is paramount," Lance reiterated, and Ash took that to mean that perhaps it was not a great idea to bring donphan or torterra. "I'll be in touch tomorrow. Can you tell Karen?"

 **~~§~~§~~**

Halfway through March, the Cinnabar Island beaches were sometimes great, and sometimes terrible. When Linda had arrived, about a week back, the weather had included rain, rain, and more rain, but that had cleared out, bringing sun-filled and warm-for-the-time-of-year days. Walking along the water's edge, with her newest Pokémon – wooper – by her side was a great way to pass the time while waiting for someone. Two someones, in fact.

She eventually saw them before they saw her, because the two were arguing. Again. "Well, if it isn't Paul 'n Alice," Linda spoke up, interrupting the sibling argument. Both of them turned to look at her, and Alice smiled widely. "Why the arguin'? It's a great day."

"This lump," Alice said with a poke to her brother's shoulder, "wants to go to Fuchsia tomorrow, 'n I just wanna stay here two more days. It wouldn't kill you to rest?"

"I told you," Paul started, rolling his eyes and straightening his posture. He was a bit less than half a head taller than his sister. "The quicker we get to Fuchsia, the more time we have for Contests. Don'tcha want that?"

"We're goin' plenty fast," Alice replied. "Yer four badges 'n my two ribbons are proof of tha'."

Linda was impressed. "Four badges? Here I was thinkin' my three badges were quick. Which ones? Thunder and..."

Paul pulled the zip on his jacket, revealing his four badges stuck to the inside. "Thunder, Boulder, Earth, Volcano," he listed them from top to bottom. "Got Volcano this morning. Blaine didn't stand a chance."

"He means that he nearly lost until rememberin' that machop know Foresight to counter lampent," Alice corrected, earning herself a glare from her brother. She ignored it. "'N Blaine wasn't too happy with yer battle either. Matthew warned you too."

Paul waved it off, but Linda was curious. "Warnin' Paul? Why?"

"They say I'm not trainin' my Pokémon up enough, but I beat all of them first try," Paul explained as a hard breeze caused Linda and Alice to duck into their jackets. "So I'm still good enough for what they're giving me," he boasted. "But fine, we'll stay here two more days. I'll go to the Center, so you girls can talk and stuff."

The girls watched him walk away, Paul nearly bumping into a toddler as he didn't seem to look where he was going. "Some days, I'm wonderin' why he is that way," Alice said to Linda, not taking her eyes off of where her brother had gone. "Mum and Da are always on about bein' humble and workin' hard. You saw that yerself 'round Yule. But Paul…" She shook her head from side to side. "Enough about him. How long've you been here? Didn't see ya in the Center."

They started walking, Linda leading. There was a café nearby, and it had the best iced tea outside of Unova. "Not in the Center. It was sort of full and I wanted somethin' closer to the beach so I went and got a room in one of the hostels 'round these places. They're mostly empty this time o' year, and it's as good as the Center, and I have a room for myself. And a double bed, without havin' to pay more too. It's so comfortable!"

"Yer makin' me jealous," Alice said, Linda noticing a fake pout on her face. "We've been walkin' and walkin' and walkin'. Paul really wants ta get to the June League, so we've been travellin' a ton." A couple of tauros were crossing the street, so they waited, Linda keeping an eye on wooper to make sure he didn't wander off. "I'm gonna have a big lie-in tomorrow. Noon sounds right."

"Is it that bad?" Linda wondered as she turned back in the direction of the ocean. They could've walked across the beach, she realised, but this was fine too. "Wait a second… How many Contests did you enter? 'coz I'm bettin' it's more than two."

"Five," was the answer. "Woulda been six, but that snow kept us near Rota for a week, 'n we missed the deadline. Paul's been in a hurry ever since."

Linda didn't know too much about Contests, but she remembered Alice talking about how many Contests she had needed to enter the Hoenn Grand Festival. "Two in five's better than Hoenn, right?"

They had reached the café, and Alice waited with answering until they had found a place to sit. "Needed sixteen of 'em. 'Course, it was six before I got my first ribbon, so… Startin' problems?" She giggled, what for Linda didn't know. "I was stupid in some o' 'em. Like havin' no real choreography 'n stuff."

A waiter came by, Linda ordering them two iced tea and two slices of apple pie because she felt like it, and Alice looked like she could use some good old pie. "That's why I didn't enter Contest stuff," Linda admitted once the waiter had left. "It's not somethin' you see in Unova, but I also have no idea what's good and what's terrible. I'd just let my Pokémon do somethin' and then they'd probably fail really badly. Can you imagine golett tryin' to dance or something?"

"It's not 'bout dancin'," Alice countered, smiling. "It's 'bout usin' Pokémon and moves elegantly. Not all Pokémon're great at tha'. Golett probably isn't, but yamask could do somethin'. Or that wooper o' yours. When'd ya catch it?"

"Two weeks ago?" Linda half-guessed, trying to think when she'd caught the wooper. "On Seafoam Islands. Didn't know they lived there, but I found him and he wanted to join me, so I let him. Sorry for not tellin' you, by the way. I forgot."

Alice giggled. "More like you bein' too excited about the whole Champion's League. You probably watched all of the matches, am I right?"

"Not all," Linda corrected as the tea and pie was delivered to the table. "Thank you. I missed a couple 'coz of boats and travel," she finished her thought as the waiter left.

The two abandoned talking for eating the pie, and it was good. Linda didn't want the whipped cream, so Alice scooped all of it out of the bowl and onto her own piece. She ended up with a small and melting beard of cream that made Linda giggle when she saw it. The younger girl – by two weeks – joined in after taking a compact mirror from her vest and seeing what it looked like. "Ya know what a girl likes, Linda," Alice told her after eating everything left on her face. "Been so long since I had some of this. Must've been Yule, I think."

"You looked like you needed some," Linda told her. "So, you caught any other new Pokémon? Between runnin' to keep up with yer brother."

"Not caught." Alice's eyes were twinkling, and she was smiling with teeth. "Slowbro evolved on the boat here. Bit weird timin', but it's all good. Don't really need more 'n what I have, and I'm happy with all of 'em." Her face fell. "'Course, Paul wasn't happy. He's not had any evolutions since the one in Vermillion, and I've had two."

Linda remembered Alice's cacnea had evolved a month back, and she remembered something else as well. "How'd Paul take slowbro evolvin'? Y'know, because of all the talk 'bout Psychics 'n Ghosts 'n Darks in Hoenn."

The grimace told Linda all she needed to know, but Alice shook her head when Linda tried to apologise. "He… He's toleratin' them. That's really it." Alice's eyes went to her iced tea, a quarter empty. "He's gettin' worse. Like, last week, there was this new kid. Started with houndour. I could tell he was a new trainer, 'n Paul just goes all out, just because o' houndour bein' Dark-type. Then he just left." Alice raised her eyes again, looking… dejected? Was that it? Sad, in any case. "I used some o' my berries on the houndour 'n apologised, but it's still wrong."

Linda couldn't agree more.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Keith and Jane left the Anistar City market with a lot of Pokémon supplies, and some other things too. Jane had found a little stall with some fine-haired brushes that Keith bought after checking their quality, and she had treated herself to some cosmetics.

Keith didn't understand why girls liked that stuff, but Jane had looked good the few times he had seen her use it, and if she liked it, he could like it as well.

Jane's pelipper was flying above them, carrying some of the Pokémon food in a bag hanging from his bill. His own mightyena was walking beside them, because Keith felt the Dark-type would probably like the walk. Jane's houndour would normally have joined them, but that Dark-type was still in Lumiose. There was time for Jane to retrieve her Pokémon. Anistar Gym didn't operate In the weekend, and it was Friday afternoon now.

"You think Max likes our presents?" Jane wondered all of a sudden.

Oh, and it was Max's birthday too. Keith made a note to call his former classmate that night. "He should. I mean, he loved your drawing for Yule, and he really liked that drawing you did for Danny, so he should like this." Jane had sent Danny and Max both drawings of all of the Pokémon she knew they had. They'd taken more than a few nights to complete, but the result was worth it, and Danny had been amazed at how well Jane had apparently captured the Pokémon she had met. "I think he said that portrait of himself is in their living room."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Jane widen her eyes, blushing slightly. Keith didn't know why. Jane's talent for drawing was great, and everyone he had ever met had been impressed with the portraits she made. "If you're sure."

"I am."

Keith's own present for Max hadn't had that same personal touch. He didn't want to re-use the ralts theme, and he ended up going with a keychain with built-in miniature compass. The compass probably wasn't very good, but it looked good enough after a bit of testing in the shop, and an embarrassing moment when he had walked too close to the exit, triggering an automated alarm.

At least Jane hadn't been with him. That would have been mortifying.

They turned a corner and suddenly, a yellow thing crashed into mightyena. The Bite Pokémon started barking loudly, immediately, and wailing joined it.

The yellow thing was actually a girl with a yellow coat, now lying on the ground, face-down, shaking. "Easy, mightyena," Keith ordered, and thankfully, the Pokémon shut up, allowing Keith to kneel by the fallen child. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, nearly immediately realising how stupid that question was. She was crying, of course she wasn't. "Can you sit up for me?"

The girl did that, though Keith wasn't sure it was because the ground was hard or because she listened to him. Her eyes were still closed, her cheeks bright red with tears streaming down them, and the sound just didn't stop.

He vaguely noticed pelipper landing nearby. "Hey. Nod if you hear me," he said, and the girl did that, opening her eyes a bit. They were as watery as Keith expected. "Can you show me where it hurts?"

In response, the girl held out her hands, and Keith saw that both of them had been rubbed raw, though the skin didn't look like it had broken. That was good at least. There was a lot of dirt on them, though."M… My h-h-hands," she told him for good measure, her voice thick with tears and hitched breathing.

Jane tapped Keith on the shoulder, dangling a kerchief near his arm. He grabbed it. "Can you do something for me?" he asked as he brought the cloth near the girl's face, waiting for her to see it before dabbing it at her face, gently. "Can you take a deep breath in? Like so?" He inhaled deeply, exaggerating. The girl mirrored him, a bit shakily because of the crying, but that was okay. "That's it. Keep doing that."

Within no time, her breathing had evened out, and her tears had mostly dried up. Her face and eyes were still redder than red, but at least the girl was a bit calm now. That was something. Keith's cousins would only stop crying when their parents picked them up, but they were a year or two or three younger than this girl looked. He guessed she was six or seven. "Your hands are all dirty, but I can fix that," Keith told her. "But you'll have to let my staryu spray water over them. It's real gentle, but it might sting a tiny bit. Is that okay?"

The girl gulped, but nodded anyway, and staryu came out. Keith quickly explained what needed to happen, and even had staryu practice a soft spray on his own hand first, just to make sure the Water-type didn't overdo it.

He saw her tense – and heard someone else stop – but she didn't break out crying again, and her hands looked a lot better after the spray, and they were clean as far as Keith could tell after he had swiped some of the dirt that had resisted the water. Luckily. He had no idea where the bandages they had bought were. "There. Does that feel better?"

"Yes," the girl said, looking down at her shoes. One of the laces was loose, but not long enough to drag to the ground. Keith fixed it anyway. "Tank you, mister."

The mispronunciation make Keith smile. "Well, my mightyena did make you trip, so I should try to help you." As if on cue, the Dark-type walked up beside Keith. He placed a hand in the Pokémon's mane, stroking lightly. "He's sorry too," Keith added, and mightyena whined softly. "Can you forgive him?"

The girl's answer never came. Instead, Keith heard a woman's voice from down the street. "Ella! Ella! Where are you!"

"Over here Mummy!" was the loud reply, and mightyena tensed under Keith's hand, but he soon let his tensed muscles go slack.

A woman marched into view, helping the girl up to her feet, and Keith stood up as well. To his surprise, he was taller than the woman in front of him. He also had no doubts about the two being related: they had the same curly brown hair to their shoulders, and the nose looked the same as well. The worried look definitely wasn't the same, though. "What happened here?" the woman demanded.

"Your daughter fell after running into mightyena, and I… took care of her?"

Keith wasn't sure if that was the right way to put it, but it worked, he supposed. The woman's gaze had moved to something behind him. "Is this true?"

"As far as I saw," came a second woman's voice, and Keith turned around to see a Jenny stand there. "He cleaned her hands and probably made her stop crying too. I wasn't here for that part." She gave Keith a wide smile. "It was well done, especially for someone your age. Good on you to think of cleaning the wound too. Many trainers forget that streets can be as dirty as the wilds."

Keith blushed at the praise. Just a bit. "Thanks," he mumbled. "Just doing what felt right."

"Well, stick with those instincts," the officer told him. "Ma'am, young man, young lady," she added with a tip of her hat before walking past pelipper and Jane, who had remained at a distance after giving him Keith the kerchief.

"Well, my daughter is okay. I was scared when she didn't return," the woman admitted. "It's her first time getting candy on her own, and that puts a mother on edge."

Keith nodded. He remembered his own mother always being relieved when he came home too late – before telling him off. "Understandable, ma'am. I think that just comes with being a mother."

The mother laughed gently. "Perceptive of you. In any case, thank you for taking care of my daughter so well. Say bye, Ella."

The girl squirmed out of her mother's loose grasp before torpedoing Keith with a hug. "Bye mister," she said, throwing her arms around him.

Keith wasn't really sure what to do, so he settled for a quick pat on the shoulder and a soft "Bye Ella," before mother and daughter walked away, soon disappearing into another side alley. "Thanks staryu. Return." He looked up, finding that Jane had approached him. "That happened."

"You were great," Jane offered with a smile. "Sorry I didn't do much, but..."

"I know," Keith said as they resumed walking. Jane was shy, and Keith was a lot better at first aid than she was. Jane didn't need to help, so she didn't, and he was fine with that. "I'm just better at this. For once, I am better at something than you!" he intoned dramatically, blushing a moment later as his sudden outburst caught up with him.

Jane's earnest reply of "You sure were," tempted him to skip all the way to the Center, but he didn't. He had standards to maintain.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny still felt like a wet towel, but it was getting better, or at least the fever and cough were. His stomach still did somersaults at the smell of anything too flavourful, which was why they were celebrating Max's birthday with simple soup and bread for dinner, instead of cake and cookies.

Oddly, it had been Max who had insisted on that. Danny would've been fine with watching them eat delicious sugary food while he was stuck with the healthy stuff, but it was everyone or nobody for Max, and since it was his birthday, he had the first, last, and only say in it. _"Besides,"_ Max had told Danny yesterday morning, _"we'll just make up for it later."_

They were in their room – Serena had just moved back in that day – and Max had wanted to wait until the night for their presents. Jane and Keith's had been opened that morning, revealing another amazing drawing and a surprisingly useful keychain. They didn't actually have a compass without their Pokénavs, and it had made getting back to the Center after a day of exploring annoying a few times. "Whose present first?" Danny asked as he adjusted the pillows between his back and the wall, placing his hand on wrapping paper.

"Yours, because you asked," Max replied with the same grin he had worn all day long. The thrown present was caught effortlessly. "Not fragile, it seems." He tore the wrapping paper off, revealing a T-shirt that was probably slightly too large for him. "Oh, wow. Cool!"

Danny had found a shop that offered custom printed shirts. It had taken him about five minutes to create a design: ralts, grovyle, baltoy, manectric arranged clockwise around a pokéball logo and then two minutes at night to sneak into Max's pack to check his size. "You like it?"

The answer consisted of Max pulling it over his head, wearing it over his regular clothes. It looked like it was a bit too big even with that, but that was fine. "It's great! Bit big, but you probably meant it that way."

"It looks good on you," Serena offered. "Good idea to pick light blue, though. Max's favourite shirt colour wouldn't work."

Danny kept silent on the shopkeeper telling him a light green shirt was a bad idea with ralts and grovyle on there.

Serena had walked over to her backpack, grabbing a rectangular package and giving it to Max. "I think you'll like this, too."

Max opened the last present for the day and found a book. "Kalosian Myths and Legends: A Comprehensive Guide," he read out. He opened it to the second or third page, and what looked to be the table of contents from what Danny could see, and his eyes widened. "Whoa. That's a ton of myths and legends."

"I had the idea after the museum visit, so I asked that teenager for suggestions, and he told me about this book," Serena explained as she poured herself and Danny some orange juice. "So I bought it before we left Geosenge."

"Uh… Didn't we have..."

"You're the one who was angry," Serena interrupted Max. "And I figured we'd make up in three weeks, and I was right."

Danny laughed as Max's face went a bit red. "She's got you there," he said, chuckling before prickles turned them into coughs. Those still hurt his raw throat, and the glass of orange juice was half empty before he spoke up again. "You even found yourself a present. Did you ask the Professor which Mega Stone it was?"

Danny knew the answer before Max started speaking, just from the way his expression didn't change too much. "He's out of town for a few days, and the machine is locked up for safety. Not like I have a Key Stone, so it's fine."

"I still can't believe you just found a Mega Stone, and that note is even weirder," Serena said. "It's just a bunch of random numbers, but you think they have something to do with each other?"

"Something dropped that note there, and I had my eyes closed," Max repeated himself from the night before. "Vulpix probably knows, but you know her. She's wouldn't tell me anything even if she could talk. That's the way vulpix and ninetales are."

Danny saw Max bite his lip, the teenager suddenly looking uncertain, but before Serena noticed, the look had vanished. Whatever Max was thinking about – and Danny had an idea of what it could be – he'd decided to not share it with Serena. "When's your Contest again, Serena?"

"It's on the 24th, so nine days from now," the Performer reminded him. "Lagoon Town isn't that far away. We're on the right side, so it's maybe ten miles? One day of walking. Hopefully," she added with a look at her knee and Danny. "We're not going there until you're fully recovered, by the way. Your health is more important."

Danny turned a half-glare on Max, who put both of his hands in front of him, palms facing Danny. "I had nothing to do with this," he said. "I agree, but Serena was the one who suggested it first."

He should probably feel touched that they were so worried about his welfare, but it did feel a little stifling now that he was actually recovering. Danny had been fine with Max hovering and helping while ill, not least because he could barely do anything, but this was a bit overbearing.

Then again, Max had been the same after Serena's knee incident on Route 10, and he had always been the slightly more cautious one when travelling in Hoenn. Maybe it was just normal.

He heard the rustle of paper, and he saw Max with the found note in his hand. "0911 1440," he read out slowly. "What if it's actually a code? Or a cipher?"

"I knew watching that spy film yesterday was a bad idea…" Serena half-complained, the fond smile on her face betraying her amusement. "You bunch of boys."

"And proud of it!" Max gave his standard reply to Serena calling them boys. This time, it definitely lightened the mood. "But let's assume it is. Let's see if we can decipher it?"

An hour later, they gave up. They'd tried a few ideas, and looked up a couple of other more advanced ways of encoding messages on the internet, but they had either produced gibberish or hadn't led to anything at all. It was strange and the message remained hidden, but wasn't that the point of creating a code anyway? To make sure it wasn't cracked by anyone with half a brain?

It was still a fun way to spend time, weirdly.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _We have now seen seven attacks in as many weeks, with plenty of casualties and luckily no fatalities since last November, yet your government insists on waiting for more information and doing nothing. With all due respect, Minister, but have you and yours lost your collective minds? We cannot afford to dawdle. The longer we wait around, doing nothing, the more people will be hurt, and perhaps even die. That, Minister, will be on your conscience and yours alone, for ignoring the truth that is so plain in sight: Dark-types and Ghost-types are a clear and immediate threat to our populace's safety._

* * *

 **Author's** **Note:** Just checking in with some others also in this story.


	11. Reflecting Performances

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 1** **1: Reflecting Performances**

"Nidoking and nidoqueen have two types. Poison and?" Max asked Serena from the other side of the table, stacks of paper to his left and right. They were practising for a Quiz Theme Performance, but Danny wasn't here yet, so Max and Serena had decided to just have her answer questions as warm-up.

So far, she had only missed one question. "Ground," she told Max confidently.

"Correct. Name two Pokémon who need a Dusk Stone to evolve."

"Doublade and… lampent?" Serena ventured. Doublade was correct, she knew that, but she wasn't sure about lampent, but Max nodding told her she'd been right. "How many Pokémon evolve with that anyway?"

"Four. Misdreavus and murkrow need one as well," Max answered without hesitation. "How many Pokémon evolve using a Dawn Stone?" he asked as the door to the lobby opened with a soft sliding sound.

He started counting down on his hands when Serena took a bit too much time, but he still had two fingers left when she told him "Two. Male kirlia, female snorunt." She added the last bit because she expected Max to ask her that question after, but he didn't react, instead getting a new slip of paper. "You totally made that one up just now."

The grin was answer enough, but it made sense, what with froslass and Max having given Danny the Dawn Stone. "Yup. Which Pokémon is heavier? Solrock or lunatone?"

"No idea," Serena admitted, picking one in her head. "Lunatone?"

"Good guess. Lunatone are about ten percent heavier on average." Max put this slip away before diving into his pocket and putting a paper clip around the stack of unasked questions. "Did the Center finally run out of hot water?"

"Y'know I need it to feel a bit alive this week," Danny replied as he pulled up a chair and sat down on Serena's side. She moved her chair left a bit to allow him to sit at instead of near the table. "Don't get ill. It stinks." He paused, cocking his head. "At least I don't, now."

"We're going to need to buy more shower gel, aren't we?" Max asked with a roll of his eyes, ignoring the bad joke the same way Serena did – by pretending it didn't exist. "So, you ready for your first steps outside in over a week?"

Serena still didn't know why the boys were so fake mean to each other all the time, but ever since Danny had explained it a month back, she could at least understand it. And, truth be told, it was kind of funny sometimes, even when it was aimed at her. It was never malicious, and the one time Danny had joked about something Serena didn't like, he'd been faster than a rapidash in apologising.

Once outside, Max led them to a relatively nearby park. Fennekin walking beside Serena as she usually did when they were out. The Fire-type seemed happy today, not least because the sun made it really comfortable to be outside, and it hadn't rained in a few days, so the streets were all dry as well.

"So, here's how this is going to work," Max said as they reached a small skate ramp, with a playground next to it. Since it was not even lunchtime on a Monday, there were no children present. "I'm going to have baltoy hide some of these," he held up two small green bouncy balls – where had he found those? - before tossing them to his Psychic-type, who levitated them effortlessly. "You select a Pokémon and have them try to find one first. The trainer whose Pokémon returns first gets first shot at answering the question."

Serena was impressed. It was a lot like the actual Quiz Theme Performances they'd read about. The only difference was that some of the Performances featured having to destroy an object to get to the item you needed to retrieve, but they couldn't really do that here.

Serena chose fennekin, and Danny picked bunnelby. "First question. Which of eevee's evolutions weighs the least?"

Oh, that was a hard one. Serena was pretty sure sylveon were lighter than most of them, but she wasn't sure about espeon and jolteon, who also looked really light and sleek.

At least she had time to think about it while fennekin and bunnelby searched for the balls around the park. Bunnelby actually found one first on top of a slide, but fennekin found the other one hidden inside a spring rider, closer to them, and she was a tiny bit faster than bunnelby in any case. "Sylveon?" she half-guessed.

"Correct," Max said, collecting the balls and giving them to baltoy. Humans and Pokémon turned around. "How much of a guess was that?"

"A bit," Serena said, explaining her thought process and getting approving nods from both the boys. "I don't think they'd ask this during a Performance. It's probably too hard."

"Well, I have to challenge Danny here as well," Max said, and Danny gave him a glare right on cue. "Besides, this is for fennekin, not so much for you. You've been answering most stuff correctly, and the questions you didn't get were usually hard questions I had to look the answers up for."

Serena hadn't known that. She knew Max had spent some time figuring out questions over the past two weeks, but she had just thought it had all been from memory or just random facts he happened to know. She hadn't put it past him. "Oh."

Danny got the second question when bunnelby lucked on finding a ball inside ten seconds, but Serena had the opportunity to answer the next few questions first, missing only one when Max asked her about what type was rarest. She thought it was Ghost, but to her surprise – and Danny's as well, since he thought it was Dragon – it was Ice. "Right, next… last question," Max corrected with a blush as his stomach gurgled audibly. "Which Legendary Pokémon is known for being able grant wishes?"

Fennekin was first again, finding the bouncy ball hidden behind a skate ramp, but Serena was completely stumped at the question. "Eeeeh… arceus?" Wasn't granting wishes part of a god's arsenal?

"Jirachi," Danny answered as soon as Max indicated that Serena's answer was wrong. "Are you…"

"Correct, and yes," Max told them as he returned baltoy to its pokéball and the balls themselves to his pocket. "C'mon. I'm hungry."

Serena had no idea what they were talking about, so instead, she went and picked fennekin up, scratching her behind the ears. "Well done fennekin. You were great at finding them."

Fennekin gave a happy bark, before letting out a yip that sounded completely surprised. Serena had no time to ask her what it was about before her starter burst into white light.

She was frozen as the shape in her arm just… changed. Fennekin's paws that had been on her arms were replaced with something softer, and something comfortingly warm grew over her wrist as well. At the same time, the light reached all the way up to Serena's neck, forcing her to close her eyes. The Pokémon in her arms became heavier as well, but she could still hold her starter.

The lack of light shining through her eyelids told her the evolution had finished, and Serena opened her eyes, her head still angled down a tiny bit, and looked straight into the eyes of her braixen, who let out a happy "Brai!" at seeing her trainer look at her.

Serena gently set her starter down on two legs, and the Fire-type took a few unsteady steps, trying to find her balance, but she managed. Her legs looked pretty sturdy, too, unlike her frail arms. The tail had also grown in proportion to braixen's body, and that was was had fallen over her wrist, Serena realised.

"Braixen look pretty cool," Danny opined as he and Max crowded around, giving her Pokémon a good look over. "I thought they had branches, though."

In response, braixen jumped away, with surprising agility too, and climbed a tree, sitting on a large branch with a hand on her chin as she studied something.

Three small branches were studied, broken off, and discarded before a fourth one was approved of. The braixen jumped down, laid the branch on the ground, and gently breathed a weird flame over the wood. It was orange-red like normal, but it came with some purple edge to it that made it look spooky and eerie, and it also didn't burn the wood, or the grass around it, at all.

Ritual complete, braixen stuck the branch in her tail and walked up. "Xen,' she told them, sounding satisfied, but the three of them just stared at the branch in her tail. "Brai…" she said, offering the branch up.

It was wood, but… it wasn't. It felt and didn't feel like wood. It was harder, and not dirty, but still slightly swishy like branches of that size – about a hand and a half – normally were. It was against everything Serena had ever learned about nature, but it still existed.

Max's stomach rumbling interrupted the study, but the road to the nearest place to eat was filled with discussion about what had just happened. All Serena really knew is that the only one who knew for certain wasn't telling. In part, that was because she was a Pokémon, but Serena also thought that braixen just wouldn't tell even if she could speak human languages. The secretive smirk on her face certainly seemed to point to that.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max jolted awake suddenly, as a door slammed in the hallway, followed by hurried steps. He would have tried to ignore it, but opening his eyes revealed bleary, pale light falling onto the desk. Apparently, they hadn't closed the curtains completely, and the light that was coming through told Max it was probably about time to get up anyway, or close to it.

Twenty to eight wasn't the worst time to wake up, and now that he was actually a tiny bit more aware, he noticed Danny snoring – a side effect of the flu – above him. That settled it, and Max got out of bed as quietly as he could, slipping into his clothing and sneaking out of the room to let his friends sleep some more. Danny still needed it, and Serena definitely wanted it.

He greeted both Nurse Joys – one just finished with her shift, the other just starting – and walked over to the telephone booth, punching in the numbers that would connect him to the Littleroot Laboratory. For a moment, he felt bad about calling this early, but then he remembered the time difference, and he rolled his eyes at himself for forgetting that. Apparently, he wasn't fully awake yet.

"Up early, aren't you," Professor Birch greeted without waiting for the video to connect or Max to introduce himself. From what the teen had gathered, they were the only trainers that called to the Professor currently in Kalos. There were more like them – often a bit older – but they only dealt with the Laboratory for exchanging Pokémon, and they didn't need to call for that. "My nephew still coughing his lungs up, then?"

Max shook his head as the video flared into life, revealing a Professor with a bit of a changed hairstyle, courtesy of some Grass-type probably, if the leaves were any indication. "Just woke up. Someone slammed a door, and quarter to eight is okay for me. And yes," he added, pre-empting the adult, "I could have turned around and caught some more sleep. It's fine."

"Wasn't going to mention that, actually," the Professor said lightly, reaching to the side for a second. "I thought you were up early because of what day it is."

Oh, yeah, that was a thing too. "I'm not that awake yet," Max said, scratching his head sheepishly. "It's strange. It doesn't feel like it's been a year, but I'm not sure in which direction."

Professor Birch laughed. "Oh, if I had money every time somebody said that. It's always like that, Max, trust me. There's just so much to see and do and you can't believe you did that much in just one year."

"Exactly!" Max exclaimed, surprised the Professor got it so right. "Even if I did more with Ash, this feels like more."

"Because you were an actor in your own story, to borrow a phrase from my brother. Things you do are different, and you certainly did things in the last year." Two of his assistants walked past, neither paying attention to the call. "How ar… Hang on. Professor Sycamore is calling."

"Wait!" Max blurted out before the Professor could put him on hold. It caused a surprised look. "I need to talk to him too. I found something a few days back, but he was out of town."

The Professor looked sceptical, but accepted Max's words anyway, and soon the screen was split, showing two Professors side by side. "Good morning, Maxim, Max," the Kalos Professor greeted. "That's a convenient coincidence. I was hoping to catch you today, Max. My assistant said something about a Mega Stone you needed to identify?"

A pen clattered onto the keyboard in Littleroot, from the sound of it. "A Mega Stone? Max? What happened?"

"I found one, in the hills near Shalour," Max said, taking the Mega Stone out of his pocket. He'd forgotten to take it out of there last night, but he was glad it had happened this way now. "See? It was just lying on the ground in a dead end."

"You don't find Mega Stones just lying around," Professor Sycamore said, shaking his head sadly. "It's probably an elaborate fake. There's been reports of those." He sighed, the sound of a pokéball opening also coming from his end. "Still, let's test it anyway. You're still in Shalour?"

Max confirmed that, and a moment later, an alakazam appeared a few steps behind Max's chair, the quiet whoosh of teleportation only audible because the lobby was dead silent otherwise. The teen handed the Mega Stone to the Psychic-type, who Teleported out. "I'll be two minutes," Sycamore said before vanishing from sight, an icon at the bottom of his part of the screen showing he had muted his phone.

"I'd ask how you found it, but if it's not real, it's not important, and if it is real, Augustine will want to hear it as well," Professor Birch told Max. "So let's just wait for him to return."

Two minutes turned into four before a baffled Professor Sycamore walked into view. "I checked, double-checked, _triple-checked_ even, and it's real. It's actually a real Mega Stone." He sounded faintly shocked as he held it up. "The chip is optical damage only: the energy readings are identical to another set I have on record. You're a very lucky Trainer, Max. It's a Manectite."

"Holy shit!" Max exclaimed loudly. "You mean…"

"If you find a Key Stone, and if you can make the Mega Evolution happen, you'd be the youngest user of Mega Evolution on record," Professor Sycamore half-answered Max's unasked question. "You are coming to Lumiose soon, right?"

Max tried to remember what Contests they had picked out for Serena to attend. There was one in Lagoon Town in six days, but then there weren't any nearby, or any at all, in the first half of April. There was one in Coumarine, near the end of April. "Sometime in May, I think."

"Well, there's plenty of time for you to beat that record. Professor Oak's grandson has that right now." Professor Sycamore still seemed a bit shocked as he handed the Mega Stone to something out of sight, and Max turned around to see the alakazam teleport in. "How did you find it again?"

Max told them the story of how vulpix – and he saw Professor Birch frown at that – led him to the Manectite, ending with the flicker that had forced him to close his eyes and the note that he had found. "We tried to make sense of the numbers on the note, but if it's a code, we didn't crack it."

"A note, you say..." Max saw the Kalos Professor close his eyes, a couple of fingers against his left temple. "That implies someone left it there with purpose, but what for? And who would do that?" He looked back up, frowning. "All we know is that it's someone with a powerful Pokémon capable of Teleport. The flicker you described is a technique used for disorientation."

"Augustine, you're the expert, but is it even possible for Max to use Mega Evolution? Your research notes suggested requirements," Professor Birch asked.

"An excellent question," was the reply as an unwelcome feeling settled in Max's stomach. Steven had told him a bit about what was needed, but the way the Professors spoke of it led him to believe the requirements were more detailed than what had been said. "Unfortunately, it is not one I can answer. Everyone we've asked has reported something slightly different, and even Pokémon from the same species require specific introspection to achieve the requisite connection."

"And as answering such a question is deeply personal, I assume you have been reticent in asking about what makes the Mega Evolutions work," Professor Birch ventured, to a confirming nod amidst a sip of coffee. "Well, that brings us no further. I suggest you ask Ash about it, Max. If anyone's going to be able to help you, it's him."

Max's stomach grumbled, loud enough that both of the Professors could hear it, prompting a laugh from Professor Birch and a simple smile from Professor Sycamore. "Well… I think I'll be going now.. Thanks Professors!"

"Max," Professor Sycamore said, stopping the teenager from ending the call. "Be careful with that stone. It has great worth, and I can think of many people who would want to lay their hands on one. Keep it well-hidden, and tell only those you trust utterly."

Max made his way to the cafeteria after ending the call, though he barely noticed what he ate – and nearly spilled some of it twice. He thought. Some time later, a hand on his shoulder startled him, but it was only Danny, bed hair and all. "You're up early," Max told his best friend while the latter took a seat, a sandwich in his hand.

Danny gave him a look of disbelief. "It's a quarter to ten. Can't call that early."

A quick look on the clock proved that Danny was telling the truth, and Max shook his head. It hadn't felt like half an hour, let alone an hour and a half. "Right. Sorry. Stuff on my mind. Mega Stone stuff. Not here," he added when Danny tried to ask a question. "In our room, once Serena's up."

"Boy, you sure are weird this morning," Danny told him. Max ignored that. "Serena is up, but she's taking a shower. We can talk once she's had breakfast. And you."

"I had some."

"Half of one," Danny said with a nod down, and Max saw half a bowl of cereal and about three quarters of a glass of water still left. The apple slices he had taken along were, at least, nowhere to be seen. "Go get some for yourself and Serena. I'll throw this out."

 **~~§~~§~~**

For the first time in over three weeks, they were travelling to a new place. Danny had fully recovered from his illness, Serena's knee had also appreciated the rest, and all of them were anxious to continue their trek around Kalos. Lagoon Town wasn't that far off, and the direct route took them pretty much straight along the beach. At first, they were at sea level, but the road gradually sloped up, Max noted that the beach was now about fifty feet below them, if not more, with a climb up ahead.

By the time they were done, it was probably over a hundred feet to fall all the way down, but the view was worth it, and they took a moment to look into the distance. In the March sunlight, vision was pretty good, and Max could see the outlines of both Shalour and Lagoon in the distance. The latter was closer, but the Tower of Mastery was easily the most noticeable landmark.

A sudden gust of wind assaulted them, and Max heard Serena's swablu titter in dismay. The small Pokémon was using her Trainer's hair as a nest again, with Serena's own hat going to braixen. It was a bit too small for the Fox Pokémon's head, thanks to the orange tufts growing out of her ears, but she made it work. "So that's Lagoon Town," Serena said, suddenly. "Doesn't look too far from here."

"The inlet's going to ruin our day," Danny told her, taking the map from his pocket and unfolding it just enough. "It's too wide, and we're going to have to go around – it!"

With a second gust of wind, the map flew off, torn from Danny's hands and luckily floating away from the cliff. Danny hurried after it, to laughter from the two others. "How about we make lunch first," Max offered when a scowling Danny – at his own stupidity more than them, probably – rejoined the other two. "Preferably somewhere away from the cliff."

After finding a sufficiently sheltered spot to actually have lunch at, they sat down with a pre-packed salad and some other dried fruits, while swablu, braixen, and Max's manectric, who had decided to come out as well, ate some Pokémon food. Max barely got two bites in before Serena spoke up. "What's it like, meeting a Legendary?"

Max swallowed his food and restrained himself from sighing. Serena deserved a full response on this, and the pointed look Danny gave him spoke of a similar thought process there. "Except for the whole Legendary Pokémon part, just like normal ones," he said honestly. "Some are friendly, others try to harm you. Usual stuff."

"I still can't get over you being so desensitised to Legendaries," Danny said with a disbelieving smile. "You've probably met more than Uncle."

"Blame Ash for that. He's a Legendary magnet." Idly, Max wondered if Ash had finally met that raikou to round out the Johto Beasts.

"Okay, I'll bite," Serena interrupted the banter. "How many Legendaries have you _actually_ met?"

"Uuuh..." He put his food down, starting to count. "Do we count multiple different Legendaries of the same kind as one or more encounters?"

"Make it one," Danny advised when Serena didn't reply. "Easier."

He ran through a quick double-check. "Twelve, then. Rayquaza, deoxys – twice – mew, celebi, manaphy, and the seven you know about."

Max had told Danny and Serena about the Kanto Battle Frontier after seeing a few of the Frontier Brains in the audience during the Champion's League. That had led to talk about Ash's challenges, and Max had dutifully talked the fights he remembered, which included the ones with articuno and the regis. Serena also knew of groudon and kyogre after the Geosenge Museum, and he'd told her about jirachi a few days back. And the fake groudon, though he wasn't sure that counted anyway.

"Hang on? Celebi?" Danny questioned. "I don't remember you telling me about that."

"Eh, it was simple stuff. Celebi was hurt, we tagged along with a Pokémon Ranger and made sure it was okay. Nothing compared to some of the others." Danny nodded in understanding, but Serena was still sitting there with her jaw wide open. "Trying to catch flies?"

Max's remark prompted a glare. "Ha ha," she said sarcastically. " _Twelve_ Legendaries? How many were dangerous? You're lucky to be alive."

"Twelve unique Legendaries," Danny corrected Serena, and Max didn't know whether to thank him for making the point Max was going to make himself or to be annoyed for being so blunt about it. "And only like half were hostile." Danny cocked his head. "Huh. No wonder you're so calm about them. It makes a bit of sense, in some twisted way."

"I want to hear about them," Serena demanded loudly. Manectric actually looked up at them, Max noted. "You owe us that."

Part of Max wanted to tell Serena that he owed them nothing, but the shock of realising that he had actually thought that stopped it from coming out. "As long as I get to decide the order."

"And one story per week," Serena added to her demands. "I thought we were done with the secrets."

Max really had to bite his tongue to not point out that everyone had secrets, her included, but he managed.

Somehow.

 **~~§~~§~~**

She had been in bed for an hour, as had Max and Danny, but still, Serena couldn't sleep. The bed was too warm, but then her foot was too cold if she let it out from under the covers. Every position she tried was uncomfortable, and while the boys' breathing had long evened out, her attempts at forcing sleep the same way didn't work.

She slipped out of the bed as quietly as she could, leaving the covers at the end of the bed to let it cool down a bit, and after grabbing braixen's pokéball, she left the room, heading to the lounge. If some of the older trainers gave her weird looks for coming here in her pyjamas, she didn't see.

She'd sat in a corner for maybe two minutes when she heard someone else sit down at her table. Looking up, she saw a sleepy-looking Danny in the old and faded shirt he used to sleep in. It looked a bit too small on him up close. "Couldn't sle-eeep?" he asked, rapidly and violently shaking his head. "Nervous for tomorrow?"

"I guess?" she ventured. "Why are _you_ here?"

"To help you with that. Make sure you sleep." He yawned again. "Max owes me bi-hiiiig for this. Was having the nicest dream."

Serena resisted the urge to giggle. "If he woke you up, why isn't he here?" she wondered.

"He doesn't do nerves for stuff like this. Used to it from everything," Danny told her as he sent froslass out, pressing his face to his Pokémon's for a brief moment. The soft yelp that escaped his mouth was very not-masculine, but he did look a lot more awake all of a sudden. "He said he's seen too much or something. He can't relate."

"And you can? It's not a battle," Serena said, feeling a bit conflicted about the boys apparently reading her like an open book. It felt strange to be anticipated like that by someone not family.

Danny returned his Ice-type before answering. "You're still on a stage hoping to not make a fool of yourself. And for everything to go as planned," Danny countered, shrugging. "League battle or Showcase or Contest or whatever, that's not different. Am I right?"

As a matter of fact, he had hit it on the nose. "Yes, exactly!" she said enthusiastically, before she winced at how loud she was in the mostly silent lounge. "I know we practised, but it's different for just us three than it is for an audience."

"Didn't you do dancing? Never had a school dance or something?"

"Yes, but..."

"But what?" Danny interrupted, ignoring Serena's sound of annoyance. "So what if it's been a while? Stuff like that doesn't change. What was it like for that?"

Serena cast her mind back to the dance recitals, but try as she might, she didn't recall being really nervous _during_ the dancing. Before, sure, but when she was dancing, she was focused on getting the dance right, not on being nervous. "Uh… I think you're right, but it's still different. What if I lose in the first round?"

Danny gave one of those boyish shrugs that so annoyed her. "Then you do, and you figure out where you went wrong. And don't tell me you think you're not good enough," he added, somehow reading Serena's mind about one of her fears. "A wise man told me that it's not about how good you are, it's about how good you can be, and working to get there." He put his hand on hers, the sudden contact comforting. "But you can't get there if you doubt yourself too much."

"It's too late for this deep stuff," Serena said, glancing at the clock. Quarter to eleven already. "I don't want to think about life mysteries. I just want to sleep."

Danny stood up, somehow not letting her hand go, and Serena felt forced to stand up as well. "Let's get some warm milk. That'll help."

The Nurse Joy was understanding, and she gave them two mugs of warm milk not too long after. The temperature was just right too, allowing them to drink it pretty quickly.

As soon as she finished the milk, Serena felt a yawn bubbling up, and the pleasant tingle that came with the long yawn was so welcome. "Let's go back now."

"Good idea," Danny replied as he took her mug and placed both of them back on the counter. Nurse Joy was temporarily absent, but Serena figured she'd pick them up. "You ready to try and sleep, then?"

"Let's try," Serena agreed as they started walking. One question did remain on her mind. "Who told you that stuff about being good? Your uncle? Your father?"

"Nah. That was Drake. Former Hoenn Elite Four member."

She hadn't expected that, and they entered their room in silence, finding Max reading the book she had given him for his birthday. He gave them a short nod in greeting, put the book away, and crawled back under the covers as Danny climbed the ladder up the bunk bed.

The bed was so comfortable now.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Serena and the other two Performers – she'd missed their names – took the platform up to the stage, appearing to polite applause and three make-up areas. They were the second group up, so Monsieur Pierre didn't explain what they had to do, as they'd heard it before. Instead, all of the girls moved to their respective stall, and with a snap of his fingers, the hourglass started ticking.

Serena took quick stock of what was available. Not a lot of make-up: only the bare minimum in standard colours; rouge, pink, the likes. A lot of lint was available, as well as at least six pairs of scissors to cut lint, fur, clothing, whatever was wanted. Various dresses and an assortment of tuxedos hung from a rod covering one side entirely, and a simple chest was hidden away underneath all of the clothes.

Serena pulled the chest out first, wheels making it easier than expected, and opened it. In it, she saw various hats and other headgear, but one item in particular caught her attention. It was a beautiful silver tiara, with the symbol for fire taking front and centre. She took the tiara, shoved the chest back to its original position, and sent braixen out.

It fit perfectly on her starter's head.

She'd seen two dresses that had looked like they would fit well with braixen's colour, but one of them – a lovely peach that would bring out the polite princess theme and look great next to her pink dress – was too small, and so she took the other option: a larger golden-yellow dress. It fit well in general, but it was slightly too long in the back, and Serena could see a small drag as the Fire-type took what few steps she could in the small space.

Then her starter did something with her tail, and the drag nearly disappeared. "Well done braixen," she complimented. A look on the clock revealed that she had nearly seven minutes left, and with just make-up to go, she felt pretty good.

In the end, she went with minimal make-up. The focus was on the tiara and the dress, and too much make-up would distract people from that, Serena felt. It did mean she had three minutes of doing nothing at the end, but that was okay. It gave her time to coach braixen.

They all came out as Monsieur Pierre commanded them to, and Serena saw her competition. The girl to her immediate left had gone for a furfrou trim with a wide-brimmed hat, but the La Reine Trim wasn't that great in Serena's opinion. The girl on the far left seemed better, having gone for a flower wreath and some make-up on her sunflora. Serena wasn't sure about what looked like nail polish on the tips of sunflora's leaves, but the audience would have to decide.

She felt her heart trying to burst into her throat as she walked up the catwalk, both her and braixen giving a small curtsey to the audience as they reach its end and then turning back around – Serena turning clockwise and braixen counter-clockwise – and walking back to the main stage.

She felt, and saw from the corner of her eye, braixen stumble slightly as they were a few steps away from Monsieur Pierre, but braixen gripped Serena's right hand tightly and managed to keep the tiara sat on her head, so it ended up being okay.

Serena really wanted to let out a big sigh of relief, but she couldn't. She'd been the first, and the audience would need to see that she could maintain composure while her competitors walked up and down the catwalk as well, and so she waited for them to do their thing.

And then the votes.

Serena was dark green, while the girl with the sunflora was light blue, and from the moment voting was allowed, she saw equal amounts of both, with only a little bit of yellow sprinkled in. "Oh, this is a close race," Monsieur Pierre commented. "Who will come out ahead, huh?"

She couldn't look at the screen tallying the scores, because it was straight up from where she was standing, but the amount of votes that she had seen go for her made her feel a lot better. She'd been afraid of going out like the girl with the furfrou, but losing it like this was a bit better.

"And the winner by only three votes is…" Monsieur Pierre started, drawing out the silence. "Serena!"

The spotlight went onto her, nearly blinding her, but she remembered to curtsey in thanks, and braixen mirrored her.

Now to wait for… a long time. She didn't know how long exactly. There were six more rounds to go, and a small break separated the last Theme Performance from the first Freestyle Performance to boot. The order for the Freestyle Performances was fixed in some weird pattern Serena didn't understand: she had expected to go second, as she was in the second group, but apparently, the winner from the second group would go sixth?

Weird.

At least it gave her time to think about what to do. She'd had an idea while waiting for the timer to run out earlier…

The two-and-a-half hours passed faster than Serena had wanted it to, but she thought braixen had understood what she wanted, and her other Pokémon was on board as well. With a deep breath, she walked onto the stage carefully, mindful of how she walked. Braixen walked beside her, and after a short bow to the audience and Monsieur Pierre, Trainer and Pokémon stood opposite each other, Serena about thirty feet away from her starter.

Her starter waved her branch in a large circle, sparks on the end forming into a fiery circle that had braixen on one end and Serena on the other. The flames burned low, but bright, and the lights dimmed as she had requested.

Time to begin.

Braixen directed the flames towards Serena, who took a quick three steps before kneeling, settling into a praying position, her hands palms up, a necklace she'd found in the props lifted skyward. "I offer thee this, oh great Queen."

As agreed on, braixen flung the necklace aside with a gentle but swift application of her budding psychic powers, the violet energy sweeping over Serena's hands and making them tingle.

The flames started moving, and Serena crossed most of the circle with quick but calm movements as the flame slowly chased her. Again, she took out a prop; a golden-coloured bracelet that looked old, but was actually plastic, and she repeated her words of before.

Braixen flung this left, and Serena nearly flinched when the bracelet barely stayed on the stage. No time to dawdle, time to move. She walked to her starter, kneeling in front of the fox-like Pokémon, offering the third item.

This time, braixen walked up, taking the tiara – the same tiara she had worn during the Theme Performance – in her hand before causing a wall of flame to erupt behind Serena.

The heat was more than she expected, but it was over soon, and when the fire vanished, a boy stood there. He was about as tall as Serena was, with brown hair down to his shoulders, wearing a tuxedo and a mask to obscure his face. He held out a hand, and Serena accepted.

They led each other into a waltz, swaying to the music that had set in, the circle of fire revolving around them. He was light on his feet, but not as familiar with the dance as Serena was, meaning that she led most of the time, though she let him lead her through an arch of fire. The heat was blistering for a moment as they passed underneath, making the return to the normal warm air all the more soothing as sweat on her face cooled down.

After a minute or so, the dance ended, and the boy stepped back, bowing deeply before vanishing in a pillar of fire, and Serena turned back to braixen, kneeling once more. "Did I please you, my Queen?"

Braixen beckoned for her to rise, and she did. A gesture, and Serena saw blue dance just above her eyes – a blue crown of fire settling on her head, without any heat or burning.

She bowed to the audience, braixen swiftly doing the same beside her, and as she bowed a second time, zorua appeared from nowhere, jumping into Serena's arms as she straightened up.

The applause was more than a minute long. She counted.

She left as two wartortle moved in to make sure every bit of fire had been extinguished. Braixen had removed all of it as far as Serena saw, but you could never be too careful, and she returned to the waiting room, where the five Performers that had preceded her immediately mobbed her.

They had liked it. A lot. Serena missed the last two Performances just answering questions about how long it had taken to get this to work, about how well braixen controlled the fire, about how well zorua was able to dance… The questions didn't end, though they had to once a Showcase assistant called everyone up.

"And now, we vote for the winner of the Lagoon Town Princess Key," Monsieur Pierre said as all eight contestants lined up across the stage, spaced some ten feet apart each. "Remember, choose the number associated with the contestant carefully. You can only vote once."

The familiar light show returned, this time all white, as the small balls flew into the key pinned on every contestant's clothing.

The theatre was packed to capacity and the lights were bright, and between that and the amount of lights coming Serena's way, she had no idea how anyone was doing, except that she was probably not going to end last. She had quickly lost count of how many votes she had received, but that was just impossible to keep up with anyway.

"We have a winner," Monsieur Pierre announced after a minute of voting, and all the lights suddenly went out, leaving the stage in near-total darkness, except for a few lamps in the audience. "In a dominating performance, gathering nearly fifty-five percent of all the votes, the winner is… Contestant number six: Serena from Vaniville Town!"

The ceremony that followed passed in a bit of a haze. The words 'I won in my first Showcase' kept echoing through Serena's head, and she vaguely felt a smile threaten to split her face apart, but even ten minutes after, she had completely forgotten what Monsieur Pierre had told her on stage. It probably wasn't important anyway, and if it was, Max and Danny could tell her.

Both boys were ecstatic as they met back up. Danny immediately hugged her, and Max's hug was only restrained by comparison. "That. Was. Amazing," Danny told her as they looked at the Princess Key that Serena had been given. "Everyone loved how cool it was, and how calm you were. Or looked, at least," he added, winking.

Serena giggled, their talk from the night before still fresh in her mind. "It was sort of a spur of the moment thing. I just had the idea while waiting, and… it worked out."

To Serena's surprise, Danny shoved Max. "You're being a bad influence. Now Serena's doing crazy stuff too."

"I'll corrupt you yet, muahahahaha," Max said, sounding almost cartoonish, his voice shaking with genuine laughter near the end, and that set the rest of them off as well. "I'm surprised the theatre officials didn't go crazy over the idea. How long did you take to convince them?"

"Three separate demonstrations of braixen's control."

"Could have been worse. Just like your first Showcase."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _ **Vaniville Talent Wins Lagoon Showcase**_

 _A first-time Performer took the Lagoon Town Showcase Princess Key in dominant fashion this Sunday. The girl, who gave her name as Serena, barely made it through the Theme Performance after her braixen stumbled on the catwalk, but her Freestyle Performance was on a wholly other tier. Utilising the pyrokinesis of her starter and the illusions of a zorua, the twelve year old beat out several seasoned Performers with a great appeal involving fire, praying, and dancing.  
_


	12. Future Plans

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Future Plans**

It was already dark as Serena, Danny, and Max left the seafood restaurant close to the town's harbour. The wind allowed the smell of fish and salt water to waft over, and Serena couldn't resist a short giggle. "Smells more like fish here than in there." She rubbed her full stomach. "Tasted so great..."

"Yeah," Danny said as they started walking back to the Center. Serena thought it was maybe twenty minutes of walking. "I didn't even know you could make seafood taste this good. That smoked trout..." Serena didn't even need to look to know that Danny had licked his lips, remembering the flavour.

"It is a seaside town. Makes sense they'd know how to make good seafood," Max offered, and in the dim light of the lanturn-shaped street lights, Serena saw him smile. "A good end to a good day."

"Still have to call Mum," Serena reminded him. She wanted to tell her mother she had won, but there had been no answer when she called earlier. "Try to anyway. Maybe she's gone to my Aunt for the weekend."

"Today, tomorrow. Doesn't matter," Danny told her. "I'm sure she'll be happy to hear about your win."

Serena felt a blush appear on her face. "Well… I didn't tell her I was in the Showcase. It just… I just forgot."

"Well, then it's an extra special surprise!" Danny went on. "'sides, she knows you're a Performer. She expects you to be in Showcases."

Serena remained silent on that. She hadn't always been the best at following through with what she started, and a lot of her practice for Showcases was because she always saw the boys practice for battling. Her mother knew that, too.

It weighed on her mind a bit as they walked to the Center, with the boys oblivious to Serena's doubts. They did manage to make her laugh when Danny mimed tripping over something, and then nearly fell anyway; a bench saving him the embarrassment.

The call to Vaniville went through for real this time. "Ah, hello Serena," her mother greeted her, and fletchling tittered agreement as well. "Did you call earlier, dear? I heard a call a few hours back, but I was in the shower."

"Around five o'clock?" Serena asked after greeting her mother, who gave a nod to confirm the time. "Yeah, that was us. Bad luck, huh."

"It happens, dear. What did you want to talk about? This isn't your usual day to call."

"So… I was in a Showcase today," Serena started carefully, and she saw her mother raise an eyebrow. "And… It went great. It was fun, and braixen and zorua had fun too. It was really cool to be out on the stage and do stuff."

"That's good to hear, dear. Did you make it to the second round?"

She heard both boys snigger behind her. "Actually…" She fumbled with her coat, taking the Princess Key out. She'd taken it with her, just as a reminder it was real. "I won."

The look of surprise on her mother's face was not something she'd ever seen before.

 **~~§~~§~~**

May walked into the seaside café, only to be met by a red-haired waitress. "Ms. Maple?" she asked, not waiting for confirmation, "if you would follow me."

The fifteen year old followed her through the mostly empty interior; it was a Monday afternoon after all, eventually being shown a glass door to a veranda overlooking the beach and Route 109. Between the rest of the café sheltering it from the wind and the afternoon sun shining down, May felt even a thin coat was pushing it.

Her companion had agreed, apparently. "Good afternoon, May," Drew said, rising from his chair to greet her with a firm handshake. "Glad you could make it. Been a while since we saw each other in person." They sat down, May draping her coat over the back of the chair, and she was surprised to find a cup of tea being placed in front of her seconds after. "I ordered you some. I think it'll be to your liking."

The smell – tangy citrus, but not overbearing – was good, but smoke coming off in ringlets told May that it was still too hot to drink. "We'll see. What did you want to talk about?"

That had been the question on her mind since Drew called her back in Kanto. Drew hadn't told her too much, except that he needed to talk to her in person, and if they could meet up. He had been right in that it had been a while since they had met up: the last time they had seen each other was at the Grand Festival, in which he had ended up losing in the semi-finals. It was a good run, but Drew had been a bit disappointed.

"I'm quitting."

Wait, did she hear that right? "What?"

"You heard me," the teen opposite her said, sipping his own tea. "After the Grand Festival, I had a long time to think, and I decided it was time to stop."

May didn't quite know how to respond to that, but Drew didn't explain any more. "Okay," she said when the silence turned oppressive. "I thought your results were good enough?"

Drew shook his head, his bangs sweeping from side to side. "It's not about the grants. Or money in general. That's never been an issue. It's just that… There's something missing," he said as he looked down, then back up. ""Like… I've done what I wanted to do, been out with my Pokémon for years now. Maybe I'll return to Contests later, but for now… No."

They sat in silence as May tried her tea. Drew had been right: the tea was delicious, but telling him that felt wrong to do right now. "Have you told anyone else?" Like Solidad, or even Harley, as much as he was the crazy cousin nobody ever wanted to see at family meetings.

"You're the last one. The reason I couldn't be here last week was because I was off in Sinnoh telling Solidad and watch her compete in a Contest. She sends her regards, by the way."

"So… What now?" May asked as she digested everything. Tried to anyway. "Going back to LaRousse?"

He shook his head as he drained the last dregs of his own tea. "I've put in an application for Slateport University. Their botany programme is the best in Hoenn, and Slateport is a special place to us Coordinators."

May had to giggle. Drew going into studying botany made far too much sense. Something hard touching her shin knocked her out of the giggle, but then she saw the tail peeking out from under the tablecloth, telling her it had just been Drew's absol snoozing underneath the table. Or stopping her from throwing tea on the floor in a coughing fit. Absol were weird like that. "I'm sure you'll make it in," May told her former rival earnestly.

"Solidad said the same," Drew admitted. "It's a bit unnerving, but all the good things in life are. Like Contests."

"Yeah, tell me about it..." May muttered. Even now, after three Grand Festivals, she still felt that very slight pang of nerves whenever she entered a Contest. Nothing that hindered her, just healthy nerves. "It's just… I thought we'd be meeting in this next Grand Festival."

"Apparently, Kanto was our last big Contest Battle."

"Except for Goldenrod," May reminded him, and she felt the smirk appear on her face unbidden, but most welcome.

"That never happened," he told her immediately. May had one-upped Drew in the final of the Goldenrod Contest with a planned mid-battle evolution that also served to blow butterfree into absol's flank, setting them up for a beautiful Petal Dance from ivysaur. It had been her final Ribbon for the Johto Grand Festival, while Drew had to scrounge one up after. He had. "So, May? What do you want to do after you're done with Contests?"

May felt the smirk slide off her face, and Drew's twitch told her he'd seen that. "I don't know…" she said slowly. "Never really thought about it. I just..."

"Assumed you'd be with your Pokémon forever," Drew finished effortlessly, and May glared at him for interrupting her. Even if it was completely true. "It feels like that, doesn't it. You're out and about, you're on top of the world, doing amazing Contest stuff, until… Poof. It's gone." He lowered his hand from where he'd snapped his fingers. "Trust me May, that day will come for you. Barely anybody continues in Contests indefinitely, unlike battling."

And she had wanted to reply with Ash as an example as well. Sometimes, Drew really, really knew how to get to her with his swagger. "Well, it's not here yet."

"Just think about it, okay? It'd be a waste for you to just flounder and do nothing."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max honestly didn't know what the village they were passing through was called. It wasn't very big, lacking even a Pokémon Center, though it did have a pretty good lunch parlour that they happily ate at en-route to their next location on the way to Coumarine.

As the only customers on a quiet Monday, they had had free choice of where to sit, and they had chosen to sit all the way in the back. It was out of sight of the entrance and the register, but close to the kitchen and the wonderful smells coming from there. If anything, they made Max even hungrier, and he demolished his lunch before ordering a light second meal. Danny wondered if it was a sign Max was finally starting to grow a bit, but Max gave him the finger and stole a slice of tomato from Danny's plate.

A sudden commotion near the entrance caught Max's attention. There was shouting, and yelling, and shrieking, and the cacophony of sounds made sure nothing was actually able to be understood.

Serena and Danny looked at him, both with surprise on their faces, and it was only then that Max realised he had stood up and had a hand on his belt. He twisted manectric's and baltoy's Pokéballs loose and walked off before either of them could stop him.

He quietly released his Pokémon before sneaking to the corner that would give him a view of the entrance. "… money, now!" he heard, and a Pokémon – a raticate from the sound of it? - squeaked threatening agreement.

Max considered the option of the raticate being one of those Alolan raticates with their Dark-type. That'd be annoying for what he was planning to do, but there was nothing for it.

Neither the raticate nor the man threatening the employee could see him, their backs towards Max and his Pokémon. The man wore clothing that looked vaguely familiar, but that wasn't important. What was important was stopping the robbery in progress.

As one, manectric and baltoy moved, the Electric-type jumping on the man and trying to wrestle him to the ground. Baltoy intercepted the regular raticate, holding it firm before sending it head-first into a ceiling tile before letting it drop unceremoniously. Baltoy set up a psychic spike underneath before the raticate landed, and Max winced as he saw the rat's crotch meet the spike.

A third Pokémon joined the fray, and the kadabra immediately took over grabbing duties from baltoy as Max felt a hand on his shoulder. A look to the side revealed one of the kitchen staff. "Officer Jenny is on her way."

Max wasn't sure how the police had even been warned, but he accepted it anyway, walking over to the man lying on the ground, manectric sitting primly on the man's chest. Up close, he saw why the clothing had looked vaguely familiar: it was a lot like the Team Flare clothes he'd seen them wear on TV and in person. Like was the operative word, though: this looked far less tailored than those suits. It was more like someone had dyed the red on instead of it being normally red, or something. Similarly, the visor that Max had seen on TV was present here as well, but it looked flimsy, more like something you'd find in a thrift store.

"Oh, hello Team Flare," the kitchen staff said as Danny and Serena joined them. Max saw Serena gasp, while Danny took a moment to look at the entire situation first. "Didn't know you went for robberies on restaurants."

"I don't think it's them," Max said as he gestured for manectric to get off the man's chest. "The clothing's not right and the visor's a fake."

"He said he was from Team Flare," the employee that had been threatened said, walking around the desk and looking at the man on the floor with undisguised disgust on his face. "Silent alarm got him, though. I suppose you enlisted our clientèle, Jess?"

Jess shook her head as her kadabra returned to her side. "The boy was already there. You were making a lot of noise, Maurice. He probably noticed that while Gabe and I were out back." She turned to Max, looking down with a genuine smile on her face. "I'm surprised to see someone your age stand up like that. How old are you? Twelve or thirteen? I wouldn't have done this when I was as old as you."

"Well, Max has always had strong opinions on criminals," Danny said, and it was all Max could do to not snort with laughter right there and then. "I think this is the fourth time in the past year?"

"Third," Max corrected. He really wished he could step on Danny's toes to make him shut up, but it'd be too obvious. At least Serena hadn't appeared to notice the inconsistency the older teen had accidentally revealed. "Wish the last two had been as easy, though."

The sound of sirens screeching filtered in through the closed door. "I'd better go outside," Jess said, stepping around the man and grovyle. "Before Officer Jenny starts a siege."

That was probably a good idea, Max thought. Miscommunication with the police was generally a bad thing.

One hour later, the teens were digging into a second lunch. Luckily, the police had been done with everything pretty quick, only needing the testimony of Max, Jess, and Maurice, and now the three teens were taking turns in stabbing at a fruit mountain and demolishing the creation. It was on the house, as a reward for helping, and it was incredibly tasty, mixing regular fruit like melon and pineapple with some Berries. Max had found a piece of lightly fried Papaya Berry, and a colder piece of what he thought was a Qualot Berry, while Danny had told them he'd definitely found a Razz Berry.

That combination of spicy and dry was kind of distinctive, and Danny had drained half his glass of water after eating it.

The police had agreed with Max's assumption that the thief wasn't involved with Team Flare, based on the exact signs he had pointed out to Jess. Max wasn't needed any longer, thankfully, and after the fruit was finished, they'd be able to leave for their destination. "Aren't you ever scared?"

Max looked up, seeing Serena not eating, instead wearing the face he had come to know as 'Answer the question'. It was determined and tried to be strict, but May was better at the strict thing, not that he'd tell either of them that. "What do you mean?"

"You're always so ready to jump in. What if the guy had gotten to you like that sneasel?"

Max's reply of "He didn't. So?" only served to make Serena glare, and Danny sent him an exasperated look. "It just feels like the right thing to do. That's all there is to it."

"You mean you're used to it from travelling with Ash having those Rocket goons around," Danny corrected calmly, looking smug as he finished. "That makes it normal to you, less so for us." He popped a strawberry into his mouth. "Please be careful, Max. Masquerain was more than enough for a lifetime."

"Said the teenager."

"My point exactly."

 **~~§~~§~~**

April first dawned bright, early, and suddenly as something assaulted the soles of Max's feet. It was soft, and pointy, and Max woke himself up laughing.

The culprit avoided Max's reflexive kick and waited in the middle of the room for Max to heave himself into a sitting position. "All is fair today. You said so," Danny reminded him of the agreement they'd made a few days prior. There was something in his hand, something white and long.

"I'm starting to regret that," Max mumbled, movement behind Danny catching his eye for a second. "But I promised. Just know I'll get back on you."

Danny laughed. "Counting on I-iiiiit!" he yelled, finishing half an octave higher. "Serena!" he exclaimed, correctly identifying the girl who'd thrown something down his night shirt. A few shakes later, and Max heard clattering on the floor, as well as making out vague shapes near Danny's feet. "That's cold!"

"That's April Fools," Serena replied as Max put his glasses on. The girl was smiling wickedly, an empty glass in her hand. "Bet you weren't expecting that."

"Kinda wasn't, no," Danny replied as he picked the item up from the floor. "I thought it'd be just me and Max, and you laughing at whatever we tried to do to each other. Ice cubes are a good one, though. As is this feather."

"Only decided to join in like, two nights ago? Something like that," Serena admitted as she opened the curtains, revealing some light clouds in the morning sky. "I'm not as prepared as you are, but I'm ready for it. And the pact stays in place, of course."

Max could live with that. Whatever they saw one of them do to someone else's stuff, nobody would snitch. "Right. I'm going to get dressed and get breakfast because I don't trust you two to not give me salt in my tea or something. Anything you two want? I promise I won't prank breakfast."

Danny and Serena told him what they wanted, and after a quick round of brushing teeth, getting dressed, and making sure Danny hadn't pranked Max the same way the elder of the two was going to be pranked, Max went and ordered food. Serena joined him before breakfast was there, but Danny had decided to go for a shower first.

They'd eating their breakfast for about ten minutes when Danny finally showed up, bright-eyed and ready to face the day. Max noticed him immediately, and a gentle foot-to-calf alerted Serena, who had been busy devouring her cereal and not really paying attention.

To her credit, she held her laughter until Danny sat down and pulled the plate with toast towards him. "Nice hair, Danny," she said before breaking out in full-blown laughter as Max got his first proper look at what his prank had wrought.

It was a glorious mess. Danny's brown hair had grey patches throughout, to the point of looking more grey than his normal brown in the front. Some of the spikes he had styled into his hair, like he did every morning, looked almost silver in their intensity, but the sides hadn't been affected as much. All in all, the dye in Danny's nearly empty shampoo bottle had worked wonders.

"Huh, wha'? Danny said with mouth half full of toast. He quickly swallowed the food and ran a hand through his hair. Some of the grey stuck to his hand. "Max? Did you put dye in my shampoo?"

"Easily removable dye," Max clarified. "It'll come out with a wash or two." He put his knife and fork down with a clank, taking a moment to savour the results of his prank. "You should really check the mirror when doing your hair, you know."

"I did, and I saw it looked a bit weird," Danny replied with a shrug. "But the light in the bathroom is weird anyway, so yeah. Hey, Serena, you have a mirror on you?"

Max lifted his shirt slightly, taking the hand mirror from its hiding place and sliding it across the table to his friend. "I came prepared."

"I thought that was in my pack?"

"Swapped it out last week. Figured you wouldn't miss it, and I did need your camera."

Danny gave a half-bow; the best possible while sitting at the round table. "Well done. Let's see how bad it is." He took the mirror and studied the result in silence.

Five seconds. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds passed and still Danny hadn't made a reply, instead angling the mirror so he could see as much of his hair as possible, turning his head, touching his free hand to the back of his head. "Eh, Danny?" Serena wondered.

"This… actually looks really cool," Danny told them, still appraising his new 'do. "Like, it's not great because it's uneven, but I like it. I like it a lot." He slid the mirror back across the table. "Thanks Max!"

"You're not just saying that to..."

"To make you feel like you failed in your prank?" Danny finished Max's sentence. "Oh, no. I really like it. Hey, Serena, do you know anything about dyeing hair permanently?"

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I know _everything_ about hair," Serena replied, nose stuck high in the air. That lasted maybe three seconds, when her face betrayed her amusement. "I don't, but Mum might. We can ask her in a few days when we meet up at the Baa de Mer Ranch."

"Yeah!"

The rest of the day continued normally. Mostly. Serena got Max and Danny once each. Danny fell for the old 'your shoelaces are untied' trick, but with a zorua on her side, it was really hard to actually notice something was off. Max also fell for a trick involving a Pokémon. He had checked the door to their room for the bucket of water every time, but he hadn't expected a water balloon to drop onto his head, splashing him completely and utterly. Swablu and Serena took minutes to stop laughing, and they had used lukewarm water, so Max wasn't immediately freezing.

It wasn't something you'd do on the road, but in a Pokémon Center, with a shower literally next door? Max's only regret was not thinking of it himself. Baltoy or natu could have done the same.

Max's second prepared prank for Danny had actually been done the night before, when Danny had left to brush his teeth. Max had quickly swapped three of Danny's pokéballs with fake ones – they looked the same, and felt mostly the same, but all they did was release a puff of smoke instead of a Pokémon. The pilfered capsules had been in Max's possession all day, until the moment that they went to have a spar after lunch.

Instead of sending out a spritzee, Danny sent out some pink smoke. At least the colour was right, Max had quipped after explaining what he had done. The other pokéballs he had stolen were lairon's – yellow – and magnemite's – white.

All in all, Max felt as he entered their room sometime near four in the afternoon, his prepared pranks had gone off perfectly. He shoved the bouncy balls – natu and braixen had been working with fine psionic control – back into the cloth he had purchased for them and made to grab the book about Kalos legends when he heard Danny enter the room.

Serena opened the door. Danny flung it open.

"What's up?" Max asked as he turned around, but pink splashed in his face as he did, and immediately, everything just became so heavy. Arms, legs, head, tongue, eyes. Everything. "Wha…"

He swayed as Danny crossed the room, and the last thing he saw was the green of the blankets rushing up to mee…

Cold. Hard. Tiles. Pillow. Floor? Why? Why floor. Why…

Memories of pink sleep, and Max sat up, room blurry. The window… open? Was it first? Why was his head… Wha… "Hey sleepyhead," said someone. Deep voice. To his right, up. He didn't recognise it. Was there water in his ear? "Uncle said the effects would wear off in a few more minutes."

Some effects they were. His body protested at sitting. His brain wanted to sleep so badly. The sun was in the sky. Why was he sleepy? "Wha..." he started, tongue heavy, weird, his voice warbling. "Dannnnny?"

"Relax. It's just a Yawn. Bit stronger on humans, but perfectly safe. Just focus on something."

Right. Focus. He could definitely do that. Unbidden, one of his favourite songs started echoing through his head. Max latched onto that, trying to catch the melody.

By the time the song was over, his ears felt a lot more normal, and a quick "Test?" revealed his tongue was back to normal as well. His vision was still blurry, but that was his lack of glasses. "That felt weird. Not anything like Sing."

"Sing?" Danny echoed, climbing down the ladder to his bunk, jumping the last few stiles and landing with a 'thunk'. "Swablu never sung us to sleep, right?"

He handed Max's glasses over, and the room came into focus once more. "Ash stuff. There was this jigglypuff that had been following them. Thought it was a star, but every time it sang..." he shrugged before using his hand as support to get off the floor. His legs weren't completely awake yet, or so it felt. "It got angry whenever people or Pokémon fell asleep. Scribbled all over their faces."

Max had been looking in Danny's direction, and he definitely saw the older boy tense for a moment. "Did it now?" Danny asked. "That's weird. Did it do that often?"

Max shrugged. "Only saw it once. Not sure what happened to it." He stretched his arms out, shaking the last bits of sleep from them. "If I can't sleep tonight, I know who to blame."

"Like you care about staying up until midnight," Danny replied instantly, and they shared a laugh. It was definitely true. "You actually only slept for like 10 minutes. It's weird."

"What is?"

"When gulpin did the same on me, I was out for twenty. Attack looked the same size too, and you're smaller and lighter than I am."

"Sing put us to sleep for roughly the same time," Max told Danny as they exited the room, taking care to shove his head out the door first to see if swablu was waiting for them with more water. "Yawn's more like Sleep Powder, though… Yeah, that's weird. Wanna call the Professor to ask if he knows? Tomorrow?"

The grey-and-brown haired teen shook his head as he locked the door to their room. "Nah. Some people are more resistant to Sleep Powder and medicine like that, so maybe that's true for Yawn?"

They met nobody until they ran into Serena at the door to the lounge, and for some reason, she started laughing immediately upon seeing them. "Uh… Serena?"

"Your… Your face!" she got out in between laughs, pointing with one hand, the other grabbing hold on the door.

Max turned away from the girl consumed by laughter, meeting Danny's eyes. There was barely hidden amusement shining in them, and a smirk threatened to break through. "Did you really?" A smug nod. "The removable marker?" Another nod. "Alright, let's see how bad it is."

He dove into the toilets, swiftly walking to the mirrors and studying his face. It was… just a bunch of random scribblings. At least jigglypuff had actually drawn something, but Danny had apparently gone for the toddler-with-a-crayon approach. Oh well, he'd clean it up in the shower after dinner.

Max's announcement when he returned, marker and all, that "Jigglypuff did it better," knocked the smile straight off of Danny's face. Good.

Of course, then Serena wanted to know about that, and the next hour or so until dinner was spent on talking about crazy Ash stuff. Again. It was good fun, and it kept the other two from pranking him some more.

 **~~§~~§~~**

When Karen had mentioned black ops back in the catacombs of Indigo Stadium, Ash had had a vague understanding of what she meant. Now, two weeks later, he knew there was more to them than he understood, but at least he had found out why they were called black ops.

Sneaking into Unovan territory had been easy – the Decolore Islands had served as a good starting point and were technically part of Unova. Then it got weird, with a series of Teleports at very specific times and more codewords than Ash had Pokémon, it felt like. After two days of that and some amazingly bad sleep because they had to Teleport so bloody often, they finally arrived in Opelucid, in the dead of night, in the Gym Leader's bathroom, of all places.

Secrecy was so, so important. Lance hadn't been kidding. For the past week, the only human contact Ash and Karen had had was with each other, and with two members of Team Plasma. One didn't remember them, one wouldn't remember them when Karen was done with the interrogation.

Ash hadn't been certain about how they'd keep the Plasma members from telling someone they had been interrogated, but half an hour as Mr. Bill Hilly from Driftveil had convinced him otherwise. Mew, that was creepy, the way the hypno had changed his name and memories just like that.

On cue, someone knocked on a nearby tree: long-short-long and short-long-long-short. Ash replied with his own callsign: short-long into long-short-long. Twenty seconds later, Karen walked into view, immediately joining Ash in sitting in front of their camouflaged tent. "Bingo," she whispered, waving something through the air. Paper, probably. It was hard to tell by just the light of the stars. "Icirrus City, north outskirts. Old convention centre. Was on the nomination for demolition, but somehow hasn't been demolished yet, and a Plasma guard squadron regularly checks the area. Guy didn't know why, but..."

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "It's something." He tried to envision the map of the region in his head, succeeding partially. "Other side of the river, right?"

"Yes, and Plasma holds the bridge." Karen sighed deeply, stomping her foot into the ground. "If only we could just get them all out in one go. Have a jirachi wish them away." She sighed once more. "But I suppose that won't work."

"If it did, don't you think someone would've tried already?" And jirachi were rare, and they didn't always do what you intended to wish for.

"I suppose." She shifted in her seat. "So, plan. We send murkrow out tomorrow night, asking for intel on the area. Wait for that. Then we cross the river on charizard and hope we don't get seen."

"How far is Icirrus from here?"

"Twenty miles straight," Karen told him. "And Plasma holds the west bank of the Verrazo river for at least thirty miles north of the Tubeline Bridge, plus we'll have to go through the Moor."

Ash nodded, and a plan began to form in his mind. "The safe zone is ten miles east, right?"

"Roughly. What are you planning?"

"We go back," Ash started, really wishing he could draw on the ground with a stick to show her. "Stock up on supplies. Then we take charizard, fly north. Cross the river out of plasma territory, go back south."

Karen thought it over as Ash waited for her approval. Nominally, he was sort of supposed to be in charge, but Karen knew the land and was willing to do a lot more than Ash was in some areas. "You realise that'd take us close to the Opelucid Wastes? Dragons everywhere. One wrong move and we're fighting, which we can't. We have basic medicine only." She hummed. "Then again… Plasma..."

The woman fell silent, mostly. Ash heard whispers under her breath, half a word here or there audible. "It's worth a shot," she agreed at length. "It's rough terrain, but it'll be as fast as finding a place to cross on foot, and less chance of being detected."

That settled, Ash stood up, stretching and peering into the darkness of the woods around them. The trees had new spring leaves, meaning starlight actually shone through, but only a little, hindered by some cloud cover.

The eerie scene felt strangely soothing. He'd seen tonnes of these places. His companion was different, but it was still just another trip, just another journey.

With a different goal.

"Ash?" Karen interrupted his thoughts, a shifting sound announcing that she, too, had risen. "Why did you join the G-men?"

Ash didn't understand the question. "Why not?"

"Don't lie. You _revel_ in battles. I saw you during the tournament. You feel alive when in the arena, win or lose, easy or hard. Why tie yourself to an organisation when you can earn more money joining the professional circuit, going from tournament to tournament?"

Ash made to move to their tent, not particularly inclined to answer, but Karen forced herself in front of him with a surprisingly strong grip on his shoulder. "Karen..."

"I'm serious. You are not the type for espionage or enforcement. If you want us to work together, I need to know. From your perspective."

Ash took a step back, sitting back down and patting on the ground to signal Karen to do the same. "I can't tell everything. It'd take too long," he told her after she had.

"Understood. If you want a moment to collect your thoughts, that's okay."

Ash wasn't fooled by the sudden graciousness of giving him time, but he didn't care. "It's okay. Can't exactly forget this stuff anyway." He ran a hand through his hair, feeling it stick up every which way. "Did you hear about groudon and kyogre? Two and a half years back?"

"I did later. A few jerks like Team Plasma decided to deal with powers they couldn't understand and Lance plus G-men fought them back, right?"

The summary was impressively accurate and not accurate at the same time. Ash wondered if it had been reported like that. They'd all stayed far away from the news after that for a few weeks, unwilling to be reminded of what had happened. "You got the jerks right," he muttered, before launching into a full explanation of that day. Karen sounded like she didn't believe it, but the truth was the truth. He then launched into explaining how he'd been dogged by Team Rocket trying to steal pikachu for the better part of four years, and the realisation that people trying to control or steal Pokémon through force were worth fighting against.

It had been much easier telling Lance this. At least he had been aware of part of everything already.

"You expect me to believe this?" Karen said, scathingly. "This delusional tale?"

"It's the truth!" Ash bit out, a fire suddenly blazing inside. "C'mon. Get your hypno out, force me to tell the story again. It won't be different."

For some reason, Karen sucked her breath in audibly, followed by silence. Ash looked up, trying to calm down, seeing pale moonlight join the sky above. "Are you certain of that?" Karen asked.

"Do it."

He awaited the flash and then nothingness, but while the flash came, it hadn't been hypno who had been sent out. It was her darmanitan, who lit a hand on fire to provide sudden searing light. "Okay. I'm not sure I believe you completely," Karen stated, and Ash turned towards her, seeing her face illuminated in the fire. There was no condescension there. "But that offer was… Only an idiot or someone telling the truth would reply like that. You never struck me as an idiot, Ash Ketchum."

He knew a few people who would disagree with that. Friends and foes. "Thanks. I guess." He yawned fiercely. "Anything else you want to know?"

"Maybe later. I need to think about this."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _ **Hoenn Government Falls**_

 _Yesterday evening local time, following hours of debating government reaction to a surge of Pokémon attacks in towns and cities across the land, First Minister Walsh's government lost a vote of confidence as several members of the Hoenn Nationals defected from their party line. A statement put out by five of the nine defectors cited the inadequate response and lack of protection for Hoenn citizens as their primary reason of voting against the government their party was part of. Hoenn law now dictates that the First Minister tenders her resignation, followed by an election in the next ninety days._

 _Recent polling has shown that Hoenn's official opposition, the Centrist party, is likely to come back into power after voters punished their lack of response to two criminal organisations gaining temporary control of groudon and kyogre._

From: Kalos Telegraph, April 2nd.


	13. Flipped Around

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Flipped Around**

A few days after the best April Fools' Day Serena had ever had, Serena, Danny, and Max were on the road again, wanting to make it to a Pokémon Center somewhere in the middle of Route 12 before it got late. Normal things Trainers travelling in Kalos did before the summer heat allowed for outdoor camping rather than going from Center to Center.

To think that, one year ago, Serena was just starting her recovery. If she went back in time to just after her injury, telling her younger self that she'd be walking about twelve miles every few days in a year, she thought the younger Serena would call her crazy. The fact that she was travelling with two boys would probably have resulted in the same. It wasn't like Serena didn't like boys, but in school, boys and girls had gone their own ways. Boys stuck with boys, girls stuck with girls, and if you travelled, you did that with someone of the same gender.

Her school friends – the only two she really kept in contact with after everything – had been surprised, but both Sara and Louise were happy for Serena to finally get out. Both of them had ribbed her a bit about leaving with two boys, but they'd backed off after Serena had told them there was nothing weird about it.

Except for Sara occasionally doodling in the margins of her letters.

What she really liked was that the boys had just fit her in. From day one, Danny had just taken her by the hand to show her how they did things. No babying because she was a girl or because she was new to travelling. They were a group from day one, not a pair of boys with a hanger-on girl.

She couldn't have had better companions if she had tried.

Serena looked up from where she was scribbling in her diary. They had taken an extended lunch break, and she saw Max, vulpix, and manectric lie in the grass, enjoying the early spring sun. Danny was polishing lairon's armour nearby, humming under his breath as he listened to his music.

Serena didn't need to groom her Pokémon yet: she'd done braixen and zorua the night before, and swablu didn't like it when Serena fussed too much over her wings. A bit was fine, but giving them the attention she gave zorua's fur? Swablu would just fly off to sit on top of a wardrobe or something.

Serena put the diary away, sticking the pen in a pocket as she stood up and stretched. It really was a beautiful day for early spring: sun, no real wind, temperatures just right to walk in. The grass smelled fresh, and the trees were really starting to bud with new leaves… Life was returning after winter, and it was great.

Because she felt like it, Serena took another slice of bread and spread honey all over it. Her mother would have been shocked at her eating honey on bread and nothing else, but her mother wasn't here. Danny certainly didn't care – he liked it too, and he'd told her that his mother was exactly the same as Serena's about sweet stuff on bread.

She finished her food and looked up into the sky. There were a few lazy clouds, and one plane was flying high up, leaving a white trail behind, but the sky was as blue as could be otherwise.

She still nearly jumped when Danny spoke up, having walked over at some point. "Hungry after lunch?"

"Just felt like it," Serena defended herself, turning around to see the tall teen grin at her. She was about as tall as Max, and maybe he was a teeny-tiny bit shorter, but Danny was definitely taller than either of them. "Do I need another reason now?"

"Not for me!" Danny told her, before raising a hand to the side of his mouth. "By the way..."

Serena removed the small remnant of honey with a quick swipe of her finger. "Better now?"

Whatever Danny was going to answer never came out. A soft tink announced glass meeting rock, and it caught the attention of the both of them. They looked down, and saw one of the more adorable Pokémon Serena knew of.

A cherubi was trying to crawl into the jar of honey, but failing because it was slightly too big for the opening. It didn't seem to care there were humans not even ten feet away, it just wanted food.

 _Cherubi, the Cherry Pokémon. Sunlight colours it red. The small attached ball contains nutrients for its body to feed on. If the ball shrivels, it's close to evolving._

The metallic voice of Danny's Pokédex seemed to scare the small Grass-type, and it froze when it saw the two humans looking down at it, closing its eyes when Serena knelt down and moved her left hand forward.

It opened them when Serena prodded its mouth with her newly honey-coated pinky. "Here," she said. "Have some. I know you like honey."

Cherubi's leaf bobbed up and down as it suckled on Serena's finger, clearly enjoying the treat, and Serena was perfectly happy to let it do that. If it had been some other Pokémon, maybe she would have pet it, but she had a feeling the honey made it feel far better than any petting ever could.

A shutter clicking announced Danny taking a picture. "Your mother's going to love this one," he said as he sat down on the rock, grabbing the jar of honey and the lid. "I guess they aren't lying when they say it's the best honey in all of Kalos."

Serena giggled at the observation. It was true for cherubi at least, and her mother did swear by this brand. "Cherubi just love honey, so much that they'll gorge themselves on it to being sick." As the class cherubi had done when someone had left the honey dropper lying on its side, full with irresistible goodness. Even three years later, Serena remembered that. "They mainly use sunlight for energy, but give them honey and they'll eat it all day long."

"Oh, photosynthesis?" Danny said, and Serena confirmed it. "Makes sense with cherrim being the way it is."

"Something the great nephew of Professor Birch doesn't know?" Serena teased, feeling bold. "My, careful or you'll get disinherited."

"I'm still learning!" Danny exclaimed, the fake hurt on his face cracking with a smile, and then short laughter that set Serena off as well. "You can't know everything about every Pokémon. Even if some of us try for that." The jab at Max – out of hearing and maybe even asleep – was fond. "He's going to be a Champion one day. Might want to get your autographs now."

"You're pretty good too. You have to be to keep up with him like that. I mean, both of you regularly beat Trainers older than you are."

Danny shook his head as he closed the jar. "Being a Champion is more than just being an amazing Trainer. It's about having…" he trailed off as he brought a hand to his forehead. "You ever have that? You know what you feel, but you don't know how to say it?"

"Sometimes," she admitted. "Maybe it'll come to you later."

"Maybe," Danny agreed. A comfortable silence fell between them, but it wasn't long. "Hey, I just realised. Don't Fire-type moves become more powerful and more flashy in sunlight? I bet cherubi knows Sunny Day." Serena had no idea where Danny was going with this, and she told him that as she weaned the cherubi off her pinky. The Grass-type let out a content sigh, looking full to burst and ready to take a nap. "You could ask it to come with you."

The cherubi chirped agreement, more energetic than Serena was expecting from a Pokémon gorged on its favourite food. "You're just saying that because you want more honey, all the time," Serena told the Grass-type.

Serena had never seen a Pokémon look that mix of smug, sleepy, and happy, and it caused a peal of laughter so loud that she heard manectric reply with a bark. "Well, that too. But you seem to like it, and it seems to like you, so..."

"Well. If you're both sure," Serena said, and again, cherubi confirmed its agreement, this time with a hop up onto Serena's left palm. It was light enough that the extra weight didn't even hurt. Her right hand fiddled with one of the empty balls, and she brought it up. "Last chance to waddle away."

Cherubi gleefully jumped for the ball, and Serena obliged, feeling the capsule still in her hand after the barest of shaking. She immediately sent her new Pokémon out again, and the Cherry Pokémon settled into the folds of her skirt. "Ubi."

 **~~§~~§~~**

The Baa de Mer Ranch was huge and sprawling, just off of Route 12. It was a common place to visit for Trainers, complete with store, riding classes, and some other things Serena didn't remember off the top of her head. They probably weren't important to the three of them.

Looking at it from a distance, she saw herds of mareep, flaaffy, skiddo, and gogoat, with some other Pokémon mixed in. All of those Pokémon were generally easy-going, and skiddo were often used to get young children used to riding on Pokémon, because they were kind, gentle, and not as high up or dangerous as some of the other Pokémon you could ride, like tauros, rhyhorn, or mamoswine.

Still, seeing the ranch did fill her with a tiny bit of nervousness. They could have gone here the day before, but Danny had insisted it would be have to be today.

In the distance, Serena saw what had to be her Mum, wearing the outfit the former rhyhorn racer felt comfortable in: an old overall she had raced in when Serena was younger covering her legs, before being tied around her waist, and a simple shirt to finish it off. Blue, of course, but Serena knew her mother had four of those: it was hard to not see her in a blue shirt at least twice a week.

"Baa de Mer Ranch," Danny said, not butchering the pronunciation this time. Both Hoenn boys had done so a few times before Serena had gotten the right way of saying it into their heads. Sort of. "I know we probably have something like this somewhere in Hoenn, but nothing so famous it gets a special name. I mean, Paul and Alice's parent's ranch didn't have a name."

"Baa de Mer cheese is sold around the world," Max told them, his pronunciation worse than Danny's, also revealing to Serena where he had been before leaving: reading the leaflets in the Pokémon Center. "I don't see any rhyhorn, though."

"Why were you expecting rhyhorn?" Serena wondered as they started walking down the hill.

"Well, your mother's a rhyhorn racer..."

"Trust me," Serena replied, "rhyhorn aren't the best Pokémon to learn to ride properly on. Skiddo are much gentler."

Max's muttered "I hope so" made her suppress a giggle. He had been perfectly fine with going the day before, but Danny had put his foot down, telling Max that he wanted to meet Serena's mother – while Mum had been in the call, too – and also saying that Max didn't want to ride more Pokémon, which was certainly going to happen today.

Max, being the boy he was, couldn't resist the challenge, but he seemed to be having second thoughts now.

Serena suppressed another giggle, barely. Max had put up with riding the rhyhorn back on Route 9, but the trip back from the Glittering Cave had been faster than he had liked, and Max hadn't done the riding right, leaving him with aches in his aches, in his own words. Serena wasn't sure how that happened, but Max had been very happy that they didn't have to go anywhere the two days after that.

They passed a few younger children wearing some kind of school uniform, all of them chattering excitedly about skiddo and gogoat, one teacher herding the group and one more talking to Serena's Mum about the lesson she had just taught, back in the field. "Mum!"

Despite all the nerves, seeing her mother again, in person, was wonderful, and the two embraced each other for a short hug. "It's so good to see you again, dear. You look fantastic." She placed her hands on Serena's shoulders, giving her a good look over. "It looks like travelling agrees with you. No knee relapses?"

Serena shook her head. "Not after that one in February. We've been careful. Once is more than enough."

"Well, I suppose one time is okay. Still, I do want you to visit your therapist the next time you're in Lumiose, dear," her Mum told her. "You'll make sure of that, right Danny, Max?"

She wanted to say she could do it herself, and from the look Danny shared with her, he agreed. "I'm sure she'll remember to," Max offered. "Good to finally meet you, ma'am."

"Grace, please. Travelling partners have that right." Both boys shook hands with her, and to her surprise, Serena saw that Danny was nearly as tall as her mother. "So, Serena, you'll help with the riders after lunch, right?"

The sudden demand took Serena aback. "Uh, sure."

"Good. Now, you arrived just in time for lunch. I hope you're hungry."

Neither of the boys mentioned the three of them had made sure to arrive close to lunch, even taking a quick battle break before coming here. At the same time, Mum probably knew that as well, Serena guessed. She was a mother, and mothers always knew.

It didn't stop any of them from enjoying a hearty lunch with many Baa de Mer products, like cheese, milk, eggs, and even the egg warmers were produced here, from flaaffy fur. They had a table of their own, far away from the loud school class – had her class ever been that loud? – and her mother asked them about some of the things they had done so far.

And some things were kept silent. Honestly, Serena was impressed with how easily Max and Danny were able to straight-up tell her mother about the Glittering Cave without telling her what had happened there. When Mum asked why Max had gotten his aches, they simply replied with a half-truth: the weather coming in was bad and they didn't want to get wet. It was true of sorts: there had been rain incoming, but they'd long been in the police station when it started.

"I think you were too tense, Max," her mother diagnosed as she dipped a bit of a baguette in her soup. "Not because you were nervous, but more from your posture. Riding skiddo or gogoat should be fine this afternoon, and I can put you on rhyhorn to see it for myself. It's probably a rhyhorn thing: they're a bit different to ride than most Pokémon."

"Because they're Rock-types?" Max guessed, and her mother confirmed that with a nod as she ate. "Wouldn't tauros also be different? Because they're bulls and all?"

Her mother scoffed. "Not if you do it like the Alolans. They strap an entire contraption to the tauros's back and put you in a padded suit."

The afternoon passed without too many incidents. A few children fell, but between the Baa de Mer stablehands, Serena, her mother, and even Max and Danny – who weren't good enough to teach others how to ride, but were still looked up to by the children – they all tried until they got it; from the clumsiest heavy-set boy to the most timid girl in the group. It felt surprisingly good, just helping others in the great early April weather.

After fixing Max's posture problems – and three laps around one of the race tracks on the ranch just to make sure he had it down – they retired a chamber just off the hall they had eaten lunch in. It was close to five, and an early dinner would be brought to them soon. They had drinks, but all of the teens had already emptied those. "So, boys, I have a question for you," her mother said as she sat in a more luxurious chair than they had seen earlier. "Serena's never been much of a cook. Is that going to be a bother when you stop going from Center to Center?"

Serena's face went from cold to scorching in an instant, and she felt something settle in her stomach. "Muuuuum."

"Quiet, dear. I'm asking them."

"Well," Danny started, "Max and I are both okay at cooking. I don't think it'll be a problem." He looked at Max, and the look shared something with him "'sides, she's great at baking things. Better than I am. That's going to help a lot with Showcases."

"Right, Showcases. Have you been helping her with that? Because the Serena I knew always slept in and started projects, but never finished them. Max, you have a Coordinating sister, right?"

"Of course we've been helping her!" Max stated, and Serena felt embarrassment mix with annoyance in her belly. That wasn't the right thing to say, she wanted to tell him, but Max went on without paying attention. "Serena and Danny have been making a lot of Poké Puffs for practice, and I know they talk about what her Pokémon could do in Performances. I help her with learning Pokémon trivia for a quiz theme."

"So you're propping her up?"

Serena wanted to shout at her mother. She really did, but Max somehow stayed calm. "No. She puts the work in. She practices, and we all help her with that by telling her how something looks, but it's her Performances through and through. She's not afraid to do something else if she thinks it's better. Like at the Lagoon Showcase."

"Did she now?" her mother drawled. "From what I heard, and correct me if I'm wrong because you were there, Serena danced with zorua's illusion, and braixen also did something. Isn't it dangerous to improvise things when there's fire involved? What if braixen lost control?"

That did it. "Mum!" Serena shouted, warmth roaring in her chest. "It's my Performance. I changed my plans because I thought I needed to, and I only did because I knew braixen could do it. Don't you think that the staff said the same? I know fire is dangerous. I know I could have been burnt. But that's what being a Trainer is about. It's not just racing a rhyhorn track over and over again, like you still want me to, if it wasn't for my stupid knee."

She took a deep breath, balling her fists. "That must have hurt, didn't it, knowing that your precious daughter couldn't follow in your footsteps any more." She saw her mother's face darken, but Serena didn't care. "I know you're my mother, but you're so smothering sometimes. I'm _not_ frail, and I'm _not_ delicate. My knee is my knee, and I know I'm not the only one out there who's had injuries. You know what? They're still following their dreams, and I am following mine. If you think that's wrong for me, then you are shit out of luck!"

At some point during her shouting match, she'd stood up, and she only realised just now, along with a feeling of shame settling in a bit. Anger was still more powerful, and she turned a full glare on her mother, who met her gaze calmly, studying Serena with a cool look.

Then it thawed, and she… smiled? What? "Sit down, dear, before you start shaking so hard you fall."

Numb, Serena obeyed, her legs thankful for not having to support her any longer. The anger slid away.

"Now, if I know you, you're probably wondering why I am smiling," her mother read her mind. "And I'll tell you. I'm smiling because I saw my daughter grow up, right in front of my eyes. And because I saw my daughter as she is, and not as she was after her knee injury. For a time," she added for Danny and Max, "Serena was sullen and without passion, even after she recovered. She didn't have a thing to dare dream about. She _said_ she wanted to be a Performer, but like I said, projects weren't her thing to finish.

"Then two boys came along, and took her along. And somewhere on the road, you apparently ignited the passion she was lacking. Or helped her with it, probably. The Serena I was looking for has plenty of it." She rose from her chair. "Serena, dear?"

"Yes, Mum?"

"I know you're growing up, but surely you're not too old for a proper hug yet? That thing you gave me earlier was so mediocre."

The hug that followed felt right, lasted long, and left her bathing in good feelings, and when they parted, a trick of the light made it look like there was something in her mother's eye. It was gone after she blinked. "Mum?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Thank you." She didn't explain what for, nor did she need to. They just understood each other.

A bell alerted them that dinner was soon to arrive, and the boys stood up as well, silent, though Serena just knew both of them were happy for her, and they started moving towards the hall. "Oh, Serena?" her mother said in a sing-song voice that brought back many memories of being in trouble. "I'll let it go, but do watch your language. I don't need to hear it from my daughter just yet."

Mothers always found a way to embarrass you. Somehow.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny gradually became aware of his surroundings: a warm bed, a shirt that had hiked up his back, and wind screeching around the Pokémon Center. He opened his eyes, hoping to find out what time it was, but the digital clock on the wall showed no red digits. There was no light coming from the hallway either.

He sat up, spotting a tiny bit of light coming from underneath the curtains. It was enough to tell him it was daylight, but without looking at the Holo Caster or Max's watch, he had no idea of what the exact time was.

Glancing a peek to the bed below, he saw that it was empty, sheets thrown back haphazardly, making Danny really wonder what time it was. Max was the lightest sleeper of them all, but he had gone to bed late the night before, Danny shooing him to bed around midnight.

Quietly, Danny brushed his teeth and got dressed. Serena was still fast asleep in her bunk, her knee brace visible against the wall next to her bed. He didn't want to wake her, but as he opened the door, he heard springs creak, and quickly left. She could do waking up on her own.

The power in the Center was partially out. There was no light coming from any of the rooms, except one where Danny saw a small flame in an old-fashioned lantern, but the light from the entrance was all the brighter by comparison. Even then, half the lights were off, and an announcement on a sheet of paper told Danny that the Center was cutting as much power as possible to minimise the strain on their generator Pokémon.

The first wave of the storm that had moved past overnight had apparently cut the power. At least a normal clock told Danny it was about half past eight as he walked into the lounge. This, too, had power, but again only like half the lights were on, making it slightly too dark in there for Danny's liking.

Max wasn't there. He looked three times, but the youngest boy he saw was way older than Danny was. He remembered the older teen being two rooms over, coming in soaking wet the night before.

"Danny Birch?" a tired-looking Nurse Joy called him as he exited the lounge. "Your friend told me that he was going down to the harbour to ask about ferry arrangements."

That made sense. With the storm passing through, nobody wanted to be on a boat right now. It was only windy outside, even if the skies were a deep grey to almost black. "When did Max leave?"

The Pokémon Center employee yawned. "Sorry. Maybe three quarters of an hour ago? Might be more. It's been busy."

Danny could imagine. "Thank you," he offered, and they went off: Nurse Joy into the lounge, Danny into the hallway to their room, his mind working fast.

The harbour was close-by, maybe ten minutes of walking. Max should have returned by now, even if the wind made it hard to walk at a normal pace.

Serena was awake, just opening one curtain to reveal a turbulent sky. "Morning Danny," she said as she moved to pick her knee brace up. "Max not with you?"

"He's out," Danny replied as he grabbed his Holo Caster. An unwelcome lack of bars greeted him. He had no signal. "Man, the Holo Caster network is down."

"They said that could happen," Serena reminded him. "And let me guess: generator power?"

Danny nodded as he swapped his shoes out for heavier boots. He had no idea how wet the streets were, but he wasn't going to take any chances. "Got it in one. We're stuck here for now. Max went to the harbour to ask about the ferry to Coumarine. At least fifty minutes ago."

He saw Serena work through that statement, arriving at the conclusion Danny knew she would. "He's probably just helping with damage. You know he'd do that, and manectric can power stuff for a while."

"Then he should have sent a note back or something," Danny replied as he deliberated putting on a rain coat. He decided against it: there was no rain pattering on the windows, though they looked wet. "Natu can Teleport."

He put his hand on the handle, but Serena tapped his shoulder before he could open it. He half-turned. "Be careful, okay? He's probably fine."

"Let's hope so. Send out a search party in an hour if we're not back."

He heard Serena reply something sarcastic as he exited, the exact words lost to the door closing, and he sped through the hallway, barely keeping himself from breaking into a jog or run.

The wind hit him with its full force as he left the Center, blasting him all over and forcing him to lean forward not to lean back while walking, also slowing him down. The cobblestone streets were wet, slippery with all the rain that had fallen over the past sixteen hours, though the skies were lighter now. Probably no rain for a bit, then. Howling, piercing shrieks of wind tore through the streets and the gaps between houses, and few others braved the outside. One woman was walking an arcanine, while two toddlers were jumping in puddles as their father looked on.

The Center was the only place around with power, apparently. All the light Danny spotted from windows was fire, either candlelight or a hearth crackling away, and a small bakery had a hand-written note in the door explaining that it'd be closed until power came back.

The harbour had limited power, judging by the lights, and he met a weary harbour employee at the entrance. "No boats until further notice, kid," the sailor told him like he'd probably told a few others. "Just not safe. Sea's rough."

"I guessed that," Danny said. "I'm looking for my friend. He's about this high," he added, holding his right hand around his chin, "has blue hair to down here as well, and was probably wearing a green coat." Unless Max had taken his raincoat. He hadn't checked. Stupid. He knew Max wasn't wearing his boots, but the coat? It had slipped his mind.

The man scratched at grey stubble. "Ah, yeah, that boy. He left us his manectric to help power things. Maybe an hour, an hour and ten back? I don't know. Said he'd be back for her later. Offered to help in person as well, but boy that scrawny…" A clang echoed behind, and Danny heard shouting. "Your friend went up to the old lighthouse, if you want to find him."

Danny thanked the sailor for the information and walked back into the village, turning right instead of left to the Center. Offices lined the street; all harbour related from the signs, and in the distance, slightly higher than he was, he saw the sign that indicated the town limits.

Unfortunately, the overnight rain had all gone down the slope, creating a small lake at the bottom. The storm drain nearby was completely overwhelmed, and walking over office terrain was a no-no unless he wanted to either scale a six foot wall or squeeze through a set of spruces packed tightly together.

For a second, Danny wondered how Max had crossed that before remembering that baltoy was with Max right now. That'd do it.

Sadly, he had no Psychic-types himself, and his boots, while good, probably weren't high enough for the water at its deepest, and he took a minute or two to think about what to do. He knew this was the only path up to the lighthouse unless he wanted to walk around the other side of the hill, which would take at least half an hour, but the idea of walking around in wet boots was not exactly attractive either.

A gale hit him in the back, and that gave him an idea.

Three minutes later, the small lake was frozen, and while it was terribly slippery, Danny was able to use the wall to his left as enough support to cross. He then had froslass break the ice with a weak Shadow Ball, because he didn't know what'd happen to the storm drain otherwise, and left.

Wet stone turned to soggy mud, buildings turned to trees and rock, and the wind's ferocity increased as Danny climbed the path up to the lighthouse. More than once, he stopped to weather gales circling around the hillside path, threatening to get under his coat. Branches were scattered across the path, and whenever a tree was nearby, Danny kept a careful eye on it, not wanting to be hit in the head.

The old lighthouse – a new one had been built in the harbour proper years back, Danny remembered – still stood as a Kalos monument. There were even tours available in summer, but right now, the doors were shut, and the surrounding area empty save for a few benches. And there, on one of them, watching the water below, was Max. "Hey! Max!" Danny yelled angrily.

Something rose from Max's arms, something small, purple surrounding it. The purple came for Danny as a gust barraged him, and his instinctive dodge turned into a fall.

Danny felt like he was thrown into a spinning cycle, clinging to a ceiling as he went flat on the ground. He heard Max say something from somewhere. Behind him? In front? Above? It didn't make sense, and he curled up, trying to hold on for dear life against the vague and insistent falling sensation.

The spinning stopped, and Danny heard footsteps from his left. "Are you okay?" Max said from below, sounding worried. "Just open your eyes."

Danny felt a hand on left shoulder, pulling at him, and he rolled onto his back, the falling sensation moving from his back to his stomach. Opening his eyes, he saw Max looking up at him, standing on the same ceiling Danny was lying on. "Max? How are you not falling?"

Max laughed, heartily and fully, as the wind roared around them, drowning out the sound. "The ground is still _down,_ Danny. Here," he added, offering a hand. "Maybe it'll make more sense when you're standing up."

Danny took the hand, and Max pulled hard to get him to his feet. The weird sensation went to his midriff, pressing against his lungs. "Not sure it's a good idea," Danny choked out. "Still feel like falling."

"Relax. Gravity is still normal," Max repeated, pulling on his hair. "See? If up was down, wouldn't my hair be pointed the other way?"

That… Made sense? He thought? Did it? "What happened?"

"Pokémon attack. I had an inkay in my arms, and it didn't like you shouting at me, I think." Max took one of Danny's arms – his right? – and moved it to his belt, closing the hand around a Pokéball. "Do you remember which Pokémon you have on which side of your belt?"

"Swampert, froslass, lairon left. Spritzee, masquerain, skorupi right," Danny said. He remembered putting them that way after food the night before. "Why?"

"Getting there," Max told him. "So, which hand is this?" he continued, prodding the hand that had grabbed a Pokéball. "Left or right."

"Right?"

"Then throw the ball."

Lairon landed on the hillside, surprised to be out, but he trotted up – down? – and started digging into the ground. "Max? What is going on?" Danny begged. Things didn't make any sense!

In response, Max took Danny's hand, leading him to the bench. A small blue-and-pink Pokémon was there too, hissing at Danny before Max shushed it. "He's a friend. Behave, okay?" He sat both of them down, the inkay jumping into Max's arms. "I'm not sure what the attack is called, but it… It flips your perception. Sort of. Like, you know that your right arm is on the right, but right now, you probably think it's on your left. It's the same with sound. I bet you're hearing me from your right."

"But you're sitting on my left?" Danny guessed.

"Bingo." He fell silent, and Danny kept looking straight ahead at the sea… below them? He supposed it was. Waves crashed on the rocks below, and the water was thick with foam as hard winds skimmed across the surface "Might be better if you close your eyes. Less sensory input."

Danny obeyed, but he found that it didn't help at all, and so he opened his eyes again. "I'll keep them open. It… Helps. Somehow." He turned his head, finding Max on the first try, seeing the other boy smile, the inkay quiet and still in his arms. The smile reminded him of something. Of… "You idiot! You should have told us!"

Anger suffocated any falling sensation as he remembered why he was out here in this storm. It was all because of that smiling idiot next to him not telling them he was out here. At least Max lost the smile when he realised Danny was angry with him. "Holo Caster network is down. I wanted to call you, but..."

The reply only made the burn in his chest harsher. Danny really wanted to grab Max by the shoulders, just to tell him off, but a part of him remembered that he was still under the attack's influence. "Then send natu with a note!" Danny bit out, teeth barely moving in his mouth. "Easy and fast. Just need pen and paper. You always have some."

Max had the gall - _the gall –_ to look sorry as he fished the small stack of post-its from an inner pocket, the other arm still around inkay. "Okay. I totally forgot that."

"You forgot," Danny repeated blankly. He couldn't believe his ears. "You've got the best memory for Pokémon stuff I know, and this you forgot? Dammit Max. You know… What's so funny?"

Max had broken out in a chuckle, his eyes closed, head bent slightly. "You. Swearing. You never do that."

A different kind of burning sensation filled Danny, embarrassment and anger trying to win out over the other. Neither really did. "One thing. Whenever you go off doing your own stuff while we're not there. Promise you'll send a note. I don't..."

For some reason, something Danny had said caused Max's expression to go from happy to neutral in an instant, and he trailed off because of it. The inkay in Max's arms picked up on it, squirming a bit. "You know what happened to the last big promise I made." Embarrassment definitely was winning out now, but Max closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "It's okay," he said, the words barely audible over the wind. "I promise I'll leave a note if I can."

The silence that fell was incredibly uncomfortable, and Danny instantly sought a way to break it. "So… What's with the inkay?"

Another sigh told Danny the question hadn't been a good one. "Found it close-by. Some Pokémon attacked its family. Some Pokémon with sharp teeth. Not mightyena, but similar. It… At least I didn't lose my breakfast." Max paused, probably to give Danny time to digest that. "It used the same attack on me, but I broke it pretty fast, and here we are."

Danny stopped himself from saying that Max was the saviour of Pokémon in need. That'd definitely be the wrong thing to say. "So… What's going to happen to it now? It looks pretty young."

"I was hoping your Uncle could take care of it. It's still a Kalos Pokémon, and it's got a pretty unique typing: Psychic and Dark." Max shrugged. "But with the power limited…"

"Well, let's get Nurse Joy to look at it first. Maybe it'll want to go to my Uncle's, and maybe it wants to stay here. Or join you."

"Oh, right." Max handed Danny the notes, and a pen a moment later. "You write Serena a note that you found me. I'm guessing she knows you're here."

Danny made to protest, wanting to cite the weird attack, only to find that everything looked the right way up again. When had that happened? "You're still telling her about the promise you made."

"Of course."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Topsy-Turvy is a move exclusive to inkay and malamar. It doesn't hurt anyone who is targeted by it, yet it is a prime example of the control Psychic-types can exert over their opponents in battle. Its effects are twofold: firstly it reverses any increase in battle efficacy of a Pokémon, like Harden or Calm Mind. Kakuna under the effect of Topsy-Turvy and Harden were perceived to be softer than regular kakuna in a blind test. Secondly, the attack addles the perception of anyone hit by it. Directions are inverted, and sensory input is often extremely confusing for anyone suffering from the attack, as memory and senses contradict one another. Disciplined minds can withstand its effects, but even then, it remains difficult to deal with, as the one afflicted must constantly battle conflicting information._

From: Controlling Flow

By: Lucian, Member of the Sinnoh Elite Four

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The additional effect of Topsy-Turvy is inspired by its animation (which involves a Pokémon being flipped around). I imagine Pokémon experiencing it slightly differently, based on different senses and the like. It's still nasty to be affected by, as Danny found out. **  
**


	14. Ingrained Versatility

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 14: Ingrained Versatility**

Serena stepped off the ferry, grateful to have solid ground under her feet again. The storms had passed without further incidents – and the inkay Max had found had been sent to Hoenn once power had been restored – but the seas were still rough, and the hour on the boat had been a long hour. Everyone on board had been glad to get off, as far as Serena had been able to tell, and some of them were islanders who should be used to it.

Coumarine City looked amazing, though. It was a weird city, built on two levels. The lower section was home to shops, cafés, stuff to do with the sea, and all those things. The higher section, towering over the rest of the city, was home to the largest Pokémon Center – even if Serena could see a small one just off the docks – and both the theatre that'd have her Showcase and the Pokémon Gym. A monorail connected them, and all of them had been interested in riding it. They had time for it, too: the Coumarine Showcase was in eight days, leaving them with plenty of time to see the sights.

She barely heard Danny's Holo Caster go off in the sounds of people moving around, but he apparently had noticed, and he stepped to the side to listen to whoever was calling him. It seemed to make him happy, too, if the sudden wide smile was any indication. "Hey, Max!" he said as he joined the waiting duo. "Guess who are coming to Coumarine?"

"Jane and Keith?" Max said as they started walking, and the names sounded familiar to Serena. She remembered a moment later: they were old classmates of the boys, and had sent birthday presents over. "They're the only ones that make sense, Danny."

She had missed something again, but the disappointed look on Danny's face was amusing anyway. While it lasted. "They'll be here in a few days. They're about halfway between here and Laverre. I got the name of the Center they're in right now. And guess what. They already have four badges. Both of 'em."

Max whistled in appreciation, and Serena wondered how he did that. She could only do it on her fingers. "That's pretty quick. Laverre wasn't a problem, I guess."

"Keith has that golbat, remember?" Danny commented as they left the dock area. "Toxic is nasty for Fairy-types."

"Mawile, klefki," was Max's reply, and Serena realised he'd named Pokémon with Steel and Fairy types, who'd be immune to Toxic. "Can't imagine the Gym Leader not preparing for stuff like that. It's an obvious weakness." He shrugged as they waited for a gogoat-pulled cart to pass. "We'll just ask. It'll be good to see them again."

"What about you, Serena?" Danny suddenly asked. "Do you want to see your friends from school again? Sara and… Louise, I think? You mentioned them."

"They should be in Lumiose next month..." Serena mused. "Sara's qualified for the Lumiose Conference, and that starts on the first Saturday, so that's..." She ran through the weeks. "The fourth. We might be there for that?"

Before either of them could reply, a bunch of children ran past, laughing and cajoling. Most of them dodged the teenagers, but one bumped into Danny, who managed to stay standing and catch the boy who had crashed into him. "Hey, watch it! What're you running that fast for?"

"Sorry!" the boy apologised, stepping back and looking around Danny, but the teen held out an arm, indicating that he wanted answers. "The new Kalos Queen is coming here. There's a parade and everything!" He tried to dart around Danny again, wanting to run after his friends.

Danny let him go, but Serena's brain had switched on. The new Kalos Queen? Here? In Coumarine? She hadn't even known Aria was from Coumarine. "We're going there," she commanded, and the boys fell in line and started walking as well. "Did one of you know Aria was from Coumarine?"

A glance over her shoulder revealed a nay-shaking Max, but a thinking Danny. "Think I heard something about it, but not sure. Maybe I heard it, but it didn't stick?" He shrugged before quickly pushing Serena right to make sure she didn't walk onto the street. "Wasn't she the one with the delphox?"

Serena ignored the blush on her face to answer, even as Danny came up to walk beside her. "Delphox, vivilion, aromatisse," she remembered effortlessly. "It was amazing how they worked together! It was flawless and so easy!"

"It looked easy," Max corrected from behind them. "But I bet there were hours on hours of practice just for that. It's the only way you can get that level of synchronisation. May was putting in at least two hours a day for the Grand Festival appeals, and that was while we were travelling around."

Serena had to ask. "And when you were in one place?"

"At least five. Maybe more. I didn't watch all of it all the time. I still had stuff like homework to do."

"As if that took time!" Danny retorted, and as the boys started bickering about who had it worse for school homework of all things, Serena's mind went back to what Max had said. Five hours a day sounded like a lot, and Coordinators only used Pokémon. They didn't have to memorise dance movements or make-up combinations or anything.

Honestly, she had no idea how May had spent so much time practising. Perhaps she should ask Max to ask his sister...

 **~~§~~§~~**

The day after they had arrived in Coumarine, Serena and Danny were sitting on their beds, zorua to Serena's right, and swablu sitting pretty on her head. She had just told Danny of her plan for a Freestyle Performance involving zorua and swablu.

"It's inspired by that kirlia, right?" Danny guessed correctly, and Serena nodded. "That explains why you want my help. Or whismur's," he added, sending the small pink Pokémon out. She immediately jumped onto the bed next to Danny, and he started stroking her ears. "But didn't the kirlia use its Psychic powers to get the effect?"

Serena had actually thought about that as well. "Yeah, but it was different. This is still a lot like the sleep Sing. It's just less..."

"Potent?" Danny finished for her when she couldn't find the word. She nodded, relieved that he understood. "Good one. You're not going to be able to use it here in Coumarine, though."

She knew that, but she had a Performance with braixen and swablu in mind anyway. "I know. It's for another Showcase. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't start practising now. It takes a lot of work to make it look easy."

Danny chuckled and Serena giggled when both of them looked at Max's pack in the corner of the room. "Well, no time like the present," Danny said, reaching into his pack and taking out a set of earplugs. "Here, catch."

As zorua moved over to Max's bed, Serena gave them a close look. "Do I need to put them in? I need to figure out if it's doing what I want, right?"

"That's for later. First thing is to get zorua to stay awake. Then you," Danny replied as he put his set in. "Ready when you are."

Serena stuffed the yellow cylinders into her ears, having to move her hair out of the way twice before it stopped being caught. The silence, broken by a calm beat, was weird to hear, but the earplugs did sound like they worked. "Go, swablu."

Swablu heard her, and the Pokémon jumped onto the bed to her left, starting to Sing a melody that Serena vaguely heard. It was very far-off, instead of right next to her, but it was pretty soothing. She focused on the melody, trying to gauge its rhythm as zorua yawned, curling up even as he tried to resist the attack. She couldn't blame him for getting comfortable. It was pretty… tiring…

Serena felt herself fall forwards, and her head met the floor. The hard, wooden floor.

Pain shot through a spot above her left eye, instantly waking her up. "Gah!" she yelled, pressing a hand to the affected spot, her eyes closed.

She felt Danny's footsteps, and then his arms as he pulled her up, guiding her back to a bed – hers she thought. He pried at her right ear, removing the plug. "Guess those don't work," he said, stepping back from the sound of it. He opened a pack. "You okay?"

"Not really," Serena choked out. She opened her eyes a sliver, and was surprised when she didn't feel moisture in them. Not a lot, anyway. "That hurts!"

Danny sent froslass out, telling her to quickly freeze something. Probably the gel pack. "Can I have a look?" he asked. "I'll be careful."

Serena parted her hands, and Danny pressed gentle fingers around the place she had hit her head. "And?"

"Didn't even break skin. Might hurt for a few days. Can you look at me for a sec?" She obeyed, studying Danny's face. His eyes were worried, but somehow also relieved. "Eyes look normal. Probably just the bump." He walked back, reaching into his pack and taking out a dishcloth before taking the gel pack from froslass's waiting arms. "Five minutes with this ought to do it."

The cold on her head felt amazing, even through the pain. "Thanks doctor Danny."

"I don't think these were made for blocking Sing. Just insistent noise," Danny said as he held one of the plugs between his left thumb and index finger. It reminded Serena that her left ear still had one in it, and she took the plug out. "And they might not be your size. But still, I could feel the Sing working. Like you wanted it to, actually," he said with a half-smile-half-grimace. "Don't think handing these out to the entire audience is a good idea, though."

Serena giggled softly, not feeling up for more despite how funny it was. "Any ideas for practice?"

She had expected him to come up with an answer, but not instantly. "Two. One: buy other earplugs," he started, returning froslass as whismur prodded zorua into being awake. "Two: shove all the beds together."

"Why's that?" Serena asked.

"So we can fall forward and not hit our heads."

Max looked very confused to see her laughing while clutching an ice pack to her head when he entered a minute later, and that served to set her off once more. Once she stopped laughing, out of breath and feeling far better than she had all day, she noticed that her head was throbbing far less.

Perhaps laughter really was the best medicine.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The Coumarine Gym was something else, Danny felt. Sure, he'd seen the pictures of it, but before they had come to Coumarine, he never would have believed the tree to be this big. The base was the size of an entire street block, and the upper surface – which you had to climb up to using a path on the outside of the tree – was still as big as several houses, and it was over two hundred feet up, and not even close to the top of the vegetation. The tree _towered_ over the city in much the same way as Prism Tower did to Lumiose. Both were amazing to see.

Then the Gym Leader, a gentle old man called Ramos, had set them to gardening before the battle. _Gardening!_ Danny was a lot like his father – he got comparisons to him about twice a month on average from Max or his uncle – but the one thing he had not inherited at all was a green thumb.

That wasn't something he could really say in the presence of the old Gym Leader, though, and he trudged through it in silence before waiting for Max's battle. Danny had offered to stay inside for that, but Ramos had eagerly told him to come watch. _"It's your merits that'll see you through a battle,"_ the Gym Leader had said in that almost melodic cadence. _"I don't mind people watchin'. I'd rather give 'em another chance to bloom."_

On the field, Ramos had been a wily and canny Trainer, using the field and vines above it to constantly try and trip Max up. It hadn't worked, to no surprise at all from either Danny or Serena. Max was used to people throwing him curve balls, and Danny had seen his best friend thoroughly enjoy the battle, as well as the banter afterwards about the final battle of bellossom and vulpix.

Bellossom in heavy sunlight were crazy fast, and Max half-heartedly complained about being on the receiving end of an 'Ash strategy' once Danny joined them down in the arena.

The harsh sunlight had abated, though regular old sunlight still filtered through the trees above. It was surprisingly warm up here, but that was good. It reminded Danny of Hoenn and many, many battles outside, including their Gym Battle for the Meadow Badge.

After what he had just seen, Danny wondered if weather was going to be a factor in his match as well.

The first round would be skorupi going up against a breloom. That wasn't really what Danny had wanted to see. Some breloom healed off of poison, and he'd bet a good part of his allowance that this one did. It made too much sense not to be the case. "Nothing that poisons," he told skorupi. "Start with a Pin Missile."

The Mach Punch wasn't a surprise, but the speed looked manageable, and skorupi avoided it as easily as breloom had avoided the Pin Missile. He jabbed with his stinger, just to annoy the breloom, but missed the tail narrowly. He skittered away, quickly digging into the loose soil to avoid a second Mach Punch and popping up a moment later in the same spot.

This was going to take a while, Danny realised. He wasn't completely sure on what the breloom knew, but skorupi was pretty sturdy, able to withstand simple punches easily, and anything Grass-typed would just… Do nothing. The Bug-type's height helped as well: breloom would have to reach down to hit Danny's Pokémon with punches, though kicks were an issue. One thing was clear, though: whichever Pokémon won this would win by attrition, and would probably be easy pickings for a later Pokémon.

That was something Danny could get behind. Even without Poison Sting or Poison Fang, this was how he liked to battle. "Let it come to you. Be ready to counter."

Breloom obliged, launching a few attacks with its limbs – left arm, left again, right, a foot sweep – that were all avoided by the scorpion. He landed the first real hit of the match in return, stinging the breloom in its hip with a quick jab of the stinger, paying for it as a kick sent him flying a moment later.

The landing was perfect, and skorupi went into a Pin Missile immediately, catching the breloom by surprise and showering it with the attack for a good few seconds before shards of rock tore themselves from the ground to intercept the attack.

Danny groaned. He had not wanted to see Stone Edge. "Dig!"

Skorupi vanished from sight, causing breloom to start moving around the arena in no real pattern Danny could see. He hadn't practised Dig for nothing, though, and when skorupi erupted from the ground, he managed to fling the breloom into the air.

The Seed Bomb formed immediately, barraging skorupi while he was airborne. Three small balls hit, but Danny's Pokémon immediately dug back underground to avoid the Stone Edge that had been breloom's follow up.

The Mushroom Pokémon avoided this attack by jumping at just the right time, landing on top of the skorupi with all its weight. Danny's Pokémon let out a cry of pain, but also latched on to breloom's tail with his stinger. He hung on as Ramos's Pokémon tried to throw him off, eventually letting go and letting the breloom hit itself with a Stone Edge.

After that, breloom proceeded a lot more cautiously, leading to a cagey fight. Skorupi dug underground to try and grab the tail again: Danny had noticed that it was being shielded from anything the small Pokémon did, and Max's Gym Battle in Shalour was still in Danny's mind. Unfortunately, breloom wasn't opening its guard. Pin Missiles were also used multiple times, some of them hitting, some of them being blocked.

The counters were mainly Seed Bombs and Stone Edges, along with punching and kicking whenever skorupi was in close. Ramos had stopped using Mach Punch, and a Headbutt had ended up with skorupi jumping over the charging mushroom and biting down on the tail. Overall, Skorupi was doing better, but Danny was worried. He had no way to finish the fight without poison ticking away, and a good Stone Edge would bury skorupi's chances of winning.

He decided to switch out. Maybe he could use skorupi's poison later on. He didn't want to show froslass just yet, which meant he had to pick his third Pokémon right now. It was going to be either dusclops or spritzee…

A small flying Fairy-type was sent out, tittering happily as she came out.

The breloom immediately launched a Seed Bomb; five projectiles trying to hit, but Danny had seen it coming. He ordered spritzee to go up and forward, which avoided the bottom trio, and the two remaining balls splashed on an advancing Protect as the Perfume Pokémon flew towards the part Fighting-type.

The Fairy Wind was unleashed pretty much in its face, at the exact moment it reared back its head to deliver a powerful Headbutt. The result was breloom falling on its own butt, and from there, spritzee knew what to do.

In short succession, she Sweet Kissed the dazed Pokémon on the nose while emitting a gentle aroma that was great for having an afternoon nap. Breloom didn't fall asleep, but it struggled to get up, nearly tripping over its feet as another Fairy Wind came blasting in, catching its tail.

The Grass-type moved a lot less sluggish after that, but it was still confused. Ramos tried to work around that with his Seed Bomb, ordering breloom to send them in all directions, but the seeds were weak, and spritzee had an easy time dodging them anyway thanks to being able to move in three dimensions.

A third Fairy Wind gave Danny the lead in the match.

Ramos wasted no time in sending out his next Pokémon, and Danny wasted no time either in switching spritzee out as hail started falling around the arena, thanks to abomasnow entering the field.

He glanced over at Max, who was standing in the same spot Danny himself had been standing earlier, and gave a nonchalant shrug. If Ramos was giving him this opening, Danny was going to take it. Besides, spritzee getting in close to abomasnow was a bad idea. She technically wasn't a Flying-type, but ice would bring her down to the ground as surely as it would masquerain.

By the time the battle proper started, the hail had reduced visibility on the field by a bit, and froslass was definitely in her element, sending an Icy Wind at the Frost Tree Pokémon. It probably wasn't going to do much, but if froslass wanted to start with it, Danny would let her.

A Shadow Ball pierced the hail in return. Froslass threw a quick Protect out, quickly flying up as well and keeping the Protect in place to bait out a follow-up attack. It worked; an Energy Ball slicing through the shards of the dissolving Protect literal milliseconds after it fell. "You know what to do."

Froslass flew down, crossing in front of the abomasnow in an effort to draw another attack out, and Ramos's Pokémon took the bait, leading a rapid Razor Leaf into froslass's path. One spade hit froslass, but she ignored it, abruptly shifting direction to fly up high.

The few steps Ramos's Pokémon took in order to be able to actually see froslass cost it, as a Confuse Ray blasted it straight in the face.

Again, a Grass-type started firing an attack indiscriminately – Razor Leaf this time – but again, Danny's Pokémon being able to move up made that fairly useless. Ramos ordered it to stop, and Danny thought he saw the abomasnow punch itself to shake the confusion off, but it didn't matter.

Froslass had been busy up in the air. Dropping the temperature to even lower than it already was, she had been whipping the hail abomasnow had kindly summoned into a fierce Blizzard. Any Pokémon except maybe stuff like articuno would be hurt by that, and abomasnow was no exception, grunting as it weathered the storm. "Nice work. Time to switch it up now."

Froslass dropped at least fifteen feet, as if she had suddenly decided to let gravity affect her, dodging an Energy Ball in the process before letting two Shadow Balls meet, creating an icy explosion, obscuring the view of the green and white Pokémon on the other end of the arena.

Then froslass drooped, gently settling on the ground as some weird lethargy took hold of her. "Get up!" Danny yelled, but as he did that, he heard a vague melody, followed by abomasnow coming into view, a blade of grass glowing green near its mouth as something purple charged in its other hand down by its side. "Froslass!"

The Ice-type visibly struggled to stay awake, trying multiple times to lift itself up into the air to no effect. The abomasnow kept it neutralised long enough to land the powerful Shadow Ball, sending froslass flying back with a powerful explosion, slamming her against the ground near Danny.

Her levitation was shaky, but froslass did manage to rise from her position, quickly Protecting a second powerful Shadow Ball. In the distance, Danny saw abomasnow go for the Grasswhistle again. "Stop it."

Danny saw froslass let out a cry as she launched her own Shadow Ball at her opponent, forcing it to defend with muscular arms crossed. The hail intensified, courtesy of froslass once again, and Danny had only a moment before he lost sight of both Pokémon in the whiteout conditions in front of him.

He turned to Max and Serena, giving them an apologetic shrug, but Max replied with a fierce nod towards the field, and Danny heeded his friend's advice, only to see an Energy Ball impact the ground right in front of him. Other flashes – green from Energy Ball, purple from Shadow Ball, and yellowish white from the two colliding – shone through the blizzard in front of him.

Not being able to see what was going on was annoying, but he trusted froslass. Between her agility and the limited visibility, abomasnow probably didn't stand a chance at hitting her..

Vision became better all the time, though, as the momentary intense snowfall lightened, and soon Danny gained sight of froslass darting to and fro around the halfway point, rapidly shooting Shadow Ball after Shadow Ball. They didn't look powerful, but they were fast, delivered from all directions as the Snow Land Pokémon sent some of them away with a distinct curve to further obscure where she was, even as she moved back towards Danny.

He didn't dare tell her which way to move in order to not give away her position, but as the hail diminished further, he did order one move. "Blizzard, while it's expecting you."

Two Energy Balls flew forward – missing froslass by a mile – as the Ice-type fell back, staying to Danny's left, low to the ground. By the time the abomasnow became visible as it charged in with a green-glowing arm, it was too late for it to stop her.

The tree toppled over in the middle of the field, succumbing to the barrage of attacks.

Froslass wasn't much better: her levitation was hesitant and Danny guessed her breathing was laboured, but it was okay. That one Shadow Ball had done a lot of damage, making great use of Ghost-type energy being disruptive to Ghost-types themselves, and the fact that froslass had been defenceless against it hadn't helped. A few scrapes that Danny hadn't noticed before, mainly on the back of froslass's kimono, suggested that she had been hit at least once or twice while sending out her barrages earlier, but she had won, and anything else she could do would be great.

Ramos's third Pokémon made Danny groan. It made sense, he couldn't deny that, but seeing the ferrothorn drop onto the field was a dent in his chances. Again, skorupi's poison would be useless, and Fairy Wind wouldn't do much either.

Nothing for it, though. It was the risk he had taken by switching spritzee in.

The hail was still going, slowly petering out as abomasnow was no longer present to keep it up, and with how tired froslass looked, Danny didn't order her to reapply it. That didn't mean he couldn't make use of it. "Bliz.. No, Icy Wind to start," he corrected himself.

Blizzard would be too obvious to lead with.

The cold wind blew the Pin Missiles off-course, letting them splash harmlessly on the ground. Ferrothorn took the wind without looking too affected, though, and it glowed green for a second.

It took Danny a moment to realise what had happened. He wasn't completely sure, but he thought he saw thin roots reach out from ferrothorn's belly to the ground, and a gentle pulse of green in that space confirmed it.

Ingrain.

First something that hit hard, then the hail, and now something incredibly defensive? What was it with Grass-types being so versatile?

He shook his head. Now was not the time to think type philosophy. Now was the time to get that ferrothorn. "Try to get a Blizzard in now," he told froslass, who'd been prodding away at the defences with weak Shadow Balls while Danny had been thinking.

Froslass flew up high, gathering all the remaining hail, consolidating the cold into one big Blizzard despite the repeated Pin Missiles hitting her. Danny could see every hit hurt her, but she endured despite it all, and the Ice-type attack was launched.

As much as the Steel insulated ferrothorn, frost still appeared all over, rooting one of its three disk-like feet to the ground. Ramos's Pokémon took a moment to break the appendage loose, and copped a Shadow Ball that clanged the frozen foot and the freeing foot together. "Nice one! Confuse Ray!"

Froslass went into a dive, dipping low to deliver the Confuse Ray in a fly-over like she preferred to do, but too late, Danny realised she had already done that tactic once.

Ramos was prepared, ordering ferrothorn to stop the froslass, and the limb that had been frozen to the ground moments earlier lit up bright pink, violently slashing upwards through the air, encircling froslass and forcing her to the ground with a mighty crash as its spiked foot also slammed into the Ice-type's side.

And then the ferrothorn unleashed a Pin Missile into nowhere, but froslass had been knocked out already. It seemed the Confuse Ray had worked, at least.

Danny threw skorupi's ball onto the field as far as he dared, delivering him onto Ramos's half. "Get those roots!"

Skorupi skittered off, jumping over a flailing leg with impunity and quickly reaching the ferrothorn's belly. He turned on its feet, tail lit up with the black-violet of Knock-Off, and swept it down low. Danny couldn't see if all the roots had been severed, but most of them would be.

The problem with this strategy was that ferrothorn was right there, but a quick and powerful Protect blocked the Pin Missile that couldn't possibly miss, even causing Ramos's Pokémon to have to rebalance itself as the energy shattered right in its face while skorupi dug his way out.

Danny had not expected the Bulldoze. The arena floor turned into the sea of a week back, waves of earth soon sending skorupi up into the sky. Luckily, the confusion meant that an attempt at slamming a limb into Danny's Pokémon didn't work. He landed on his side, but got up. It was a little hesitant, but that was understandable. "Pin Miss–watch out!"

Ramos had ordered ferrothorn to start wrecking the arena, sending Bulldoze after Bulldoze skorupi's way. The small Pokémon had to skitter away to dodge a heap of loose rocks created earlier, and was unable to attack as he ran over the rising and descending slabs of earth, trying to work with the tide instead of against it.

It wasn't enough. His running accidentally brought him too close to ferrothorn, who had taken a few steps forward, and a steel foot slammed into skorupi, sending him flying straight into the shields, from where he almost slid down to the ground straight in front of the referee.

At least the Ingrain had been removed. "Thanks skorupi," he thanked his sixth Pokémon. The skorupi may not have won either of the matches he was in, but not every battle was about winning. Sometimes, it just made more sense to retreat.

Spritzee came out again. "Now to finish it," Danny muttered. "Fly high and keep it busy!" he added as his Pokémon flew out to meet her opponent. "Start with Echoed Voice!"

Much like the start of froslass's battle with ferrothorn, the attack threw the Pin Missiles off target, but they also cancelled out the Echoed Voice to the point of uselessness. It washed over the Thorn Pod Pokémon harmlessly, but that was okay. "Second one!"

It took a little longer to produce, but a more solid-looking circle of sound-based energy flew down. Pin Missiles came within a few feet of hitting spritzee, but they didn't, and they were utterly swept aside by the Echoed Voice. Danny made a note to remember it: a third attack would take too much time for spritzee to generate, allowing ferrothorn to counter. "Hold the resonance. Fairy Wind and move."

It wasn't meant to hurt. It was meant to keep ferrothorn from putting the Ingrain down, and it worked as spritzee flew around the arena erratically. She didn't let Ramos find a pattern in her flight, which was good, because her opponent had grabbed quicker Pokémon than her out of the air. That didn't stop it from making an attempt, but it was an atrocious miss.

Ferrothorn was actually moving to the centre of the field to minimise its distance to spritzee at all times, allowing it to reduce the chance of being hit by a third Echoed Voice. The fact that spritzee could fly behind it faster than it could turn was irrelevant: Ramos could easily tell it where to aim Pin Missiles, which were launched from the iron barbs, and not from the mouth like a Seed Bomb would be. Danny needed to find a way to let spritzee build up a third and fourth Echoed Voice. Sadly, Sweet Kiss required contact, and that was probably impossible.

Or was it? It was worth a shot at least. "Attract!" Pink hearts shot out from spritzee, impacting directly on the Grass-type's body while Danny watched closely, hoping to see effects appear.

They did, and Danny saw Ramos shout for ferrothorn to snap out of it. "Echoed Voice!"

It took a bit longer than he had hoped, but ferrothorn was still trying to snap out of the effect of the Attract. Echoed Voice hit from above, forcing the main part of his body lower, but not quite to the ground. Still good. "Now Sweet Kiss!"

Just as the Attract appeared to have worn off – if the limb lashing out with pink energy was any indication – the Sweet Kiss hit home. Spritzee flew up, and as Danny yelled for her to finish it, Ramos returned ferrothorn.

Why, he didn't know, but a win was a win. Spritzee flew down and Danny caught her in his arms, the fluffy bird chirping happily and emitting a sweet and calming scent as he pet her. He felt his heartbeat slow down as he did. "That was good. Great that you could hold that Echoed Voice for so long!"

"I wasn't expecting a strategy like that when we started, but that was good, Danny Birch," Ramos said as he walked up, hands folded behind his back. "It's not always strength that decides a battle. Disrupting your opponent is a great way to do it, too."

"Why did you return ferrothorn?" Serena asked the question that had been on Danny's mind. He hadn't noticed her arriving, but there they were. Spritzee flew off, allowing Danny to exchange a high five with Max and a short hug with Serena. "It looked healthy."

"Ferrothorn always do," Ramos replied, "but there's one sign that things are goin' bad for 'em, and that's when they start to buckle. Between tha' and Sweet Kiss and the Echoed Voice, I knew I was beat. Now, I know you want your badges, but these battles have made an old man thirsty. Would you like some tea?"

Their time in the Gym ended as it began: doing something completely unrelated to Pokémon battling, but with four Badges in hand, Danny couldn't find it in him to care.

 **~~§~~§~~**

"That's gotta hurt," Keith exclaimed, wincing as Jane's combusken was almost flattened by the Alolan exeggutor using some weird move involving its head. Unsurprisingly, since the Fire-type had already knocked out a weepinbell, it was out for the count, leaving Jane and Ramos both with one Pokémon left. Swellow and tangela had tied earlier. "C'mon Jane. Do it."

"Any idea what she's sending out?" Danny wondered. "I mean, houndour's not going to do much. That thing is actually part Dragon-type." And how that worked, Danny really had no clue about. It was worse than the whole dustox not being Flying-type thing.

He noticed a smirk on his black-haired companion's face. "Oh, you'll see."

Danny sent a glare Keith's way when Jane sent a sneasel out. "I thought you hadn't found one in Frost Cavern?"

"We didn't," Keith admitted. "But this one we found just outside of Laverre. Took a bit for her to win its trust, but Jane won out in the end." He sighed, and Danny caught a wistful look. "Just as she'll win now. Watch."

As sneasel started the last battle by forming a ball of ice before shattering it into tiny shards that flew towards the long-necked Grass-type, Danny tried to make sense of what he had just seen. There was something he couldn't quite put his finger on going on with Keith. Even compared to last week, he seemed happier, more at ease, and it wasn't just the badge he had won.

He put it out of mind as the battle heated up, but the type advantage Jane had ended up being decisive. Sneasel was too fast to get hit by anything heavy-hitting, and the exeggutor's vulnerability to Ice ended up being a huge problem.

Sneasel ran circles around Ramos's Pokémon, getting hit maybe twice before using the vines above to sling itself onto the Grass-type's body, climbing up the long neck before delivering an Ice Punch to the cheek for the finishing blow. Normally, exeggutor were able to throw Pokémon off with their Psychic powers, but sneasel was immune, of course. It was a great counter, and sneasel looked very fresh after jumping off with a somersault.

The four onlookers climbed down from their perches, Danny and Keith reaching Jane a bit earlier because Max had probably helped Serena down, and the two travel companions hugged briefly.

And then Keith planted a quick kiss on Jane's cheek.

Oh. _Oh._ That explained it.

Red appeared on Jane's face, standing out against her light skin and black hair, but she didn't protest, and the smile as they joined hands was positively big for her.

Max and Serena looked completely unsurprised by the public display of affection, both congratulating Jane on her victory as Ramos waited a few steps away. In fact, they looked way too comfortable with it. "You knew?"

"We told Max and Serena last night," Jane spoke up, louder than Danny was used to from her. "You weren't there. They didn't tell you?"

Danny had been away at a small open-air festival for local bands in the harbour, and had missed Keith and Jane arriving in the Pokémon Center while he was listening and rocking to the music. He'd had fun, even if he only went to bed at half past midnight. "That's my fault," Max said, drawing everyone's attention. "I forgot this morning. My bad."

But his eyes met Danny's, and somehow, Danny knew Max hadn't forgotten. It had been deliberate, done to give him a surprise. He gave a nod, conceding for now, but kept silent, and Ramos stepped in to congratulate them. "Ah, you youngsters. It warms an old man's heart to see it." Ramos held out his right hand, two leaf-shaped Plant Badges lying atop the gardener's glove. "Petalburg must be a good place to learn if you're all here with the skill I saw. Keep goin', and train diligently, and you'll do just fine in whatever you want to do."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Name:_ _Ramos  
Age: __72  
Type: __Grass  
Location: __Coumarine City  
Signature Pokémon: __gogoat, victreebel  
Typical format: 3v3_

 _Information:_ _As the oldest and senior Gym Leader in Kalos, Ramos has long carved out his niche. He is somewhat on the lenient side when it comes to handing out badges, but challengers face the full versatility of the Grass-type in his Gym, ranging from poison to recovery moves, and from weather to offbeat secondary types. Approaching the half-century mark in his position, this cunning old man has answers for every situation, and whichever Pokémon he chooses, rest assured that it is pitched perfectly into the flow of battle._

From: Poképedia's Kalos Gym Leader Profiles

* * *

 **Author's Note:** A bit of Showcase practice, a lot of battling, and meeting up with old friends. Standard chapter, really.


	15. Sudden Shock

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter** **15: Sudden Shock  
**

A day after Keith and Jane had won their own Plant Badges, the five of them had split up across Coumarine. Jane and Serena were off to do some shopping for Serena's Showcase in two days, leaving the boys to wander around town and catch up some more about what they'd done in Kalos. Danny and Max had just finished telling Keith about the Battle Chateau, and the idea of it was still a bit weird to Keith. "So you're both Barons now, until you beat other Barons enough times? But what if someone really powerful joins? Do they start as Barons as well?" he said as he and Max sat on a bench overlooking the Coumarine Bay. Straight ahead, they saw the end of the rock formation that span across a good part of the bay.

Max finished his milkshake with a loud slurp. "Y eah. Unless you're a Gym Leader or a member of the Elite Four. I think they get bumped up." Keith saw him look around for a trash bin. "I mean, you need a lot of wins to get to Duke otherwise, and Clemont's only sixteen and a Gym Leader..."

"Losing can be helpful too," Danny added as he shifted on his belly, trying to get a good picture of a flock of fletchling on a nearby buoy. "If you can find what went wrong apart from 'the other Pokémon was stronger', you've got something to practice. If you're really lucky, the winner will help you with it too. Right Max?"

"You won the last two three on threes," Max replied, sounding like he'd said stuff like it before. "But you're right that losing is sometimes even better than winning. It stinks, but just winning all the time makes you overconfident, or arrogant. That's bad."

Keith remembered Max's first opponent in the Victory Tournament, last December. At the time, he hadn't been sure what Max's Dad had meant, but after watching a recording of the battle, he saw the arrogance the Gym Leader had talked about. Then, when Max had used manectric deal with the arcanine, his opponent had started to… Not panic, but close to it. He didn't know the term. "Can I ask for a lot of help, then? You can always get better, right?"

It felt weird, asking the younger boys for help when he hadn't even been that close to them in school. He'd been friendly enough with Danny, but Danny was friends with everyone, and by the time Max came back, Keith had been a month away from leaving. He had a five month head start on them, and they were miles beyond him.

Max chuckled softly. "I'm sure we can make time. And don't sell yourself short. Just because we're better doesn't mean we know everything. You helped me a lot in December. And no," he said, wagging a finger when Keith opened his mouth, "not just saying that to make you feel better. Not every Trainer is good with the same thing. You just need to find out what _you're_ good at and play to it."

"Max with the philosophy knowledge," Danny said before several clicks told Keith he'd shot the pictures he had been looking for. "As usual, he's right. It's how I work with Serena, too. We talk about ideas for a Performance, and then she makes them work for her Pokémon."

"Ash, Brock, and May did the same," Max said as Keith saw Danny push himself to his knees. "And I think it rubbed off on me."

"Along with a ton of knowledge."

"And that," Max agreed with Danny. "But knowledge isn't everything. It's useless without knowing how to use it. I know what a tourniquet is, but I don't know how to apply one."

Keith smiled, remembering the lecture they had walked into after returning from the Gym the day before. Nurse Joy had been talking about some first aid techniques for serious injuries. Still feeling happy from his win, Keith had volunteered to help, learning how to apply a tourniquet and make better splints in the process. "Well, let's hope we don't ever need one. That'd be bad."

"What the..." Danny muttered before Max could reply. "Hey, Max, look over there. Halfway to the hotel."

Keith looked as well, and he saw at least a dozen men climbing up the cliff – Coumarine Hotel was higher up, overlooking the bay on a hill – with special equipment. Several speedboats were waiting below. They were all wearing grey clothing, Keith thought, but at the distance, he wasn't certain.

Danny gasped from behind his camera. "It's Team Flare. I'd recognise those visors anywhere."

"Team Flare? What on earth are they doing here?" Max said what Keith was thinking.

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Danny said as he stood up, reaching for his Holo Caster. "What the. No signal again? I had it ten minutes ago!"

Before Keith could realise what was going on, Max had sent out ninjask, and he had produced a pen and something to write on from nowhere. He quickly scribbled a message before handing the note to his Bug-type. "Go to the police station as fast as you can. Then go to where those men are now and find us."

Danny sighed audibly. "Max..."

"No," Max said forcefully as ninjask flew off. "I am not sitting by. Not when those shits are doing things. _You know why_ ," he added, emphasising the last sentence as if it meant something more. "Don't even try to stop me."

The hell? Keith had no idea what was going on, but Max had already left, starting to jog down the quay. Danny followed, as did Keith. "What's got him all… riled up?" he asked as he put on a bit more speed to draw level with Danny. The pace was okay, for now. "Why's he going there?"

"Long story," Danny shot back as Max suddenly took a left turn. They followed, Danny nearly bumping into a middle-aged lady. "You know who they are, right?"

"Team Flare?"

"Yeah, we met them before."

That, and the fact that they had entered a fairly busy street, shut Keith up as he had to dodge around a lot of people. They hadn't told him anything about this!

An explosion tore through the air, and yelling soon followed. Max pressed himself to a window, and Keith did the same as a horde of people ran past, trying to get away from whatever had caused the explosion. A few people – shop security officers, one Officer Jenny – moved in the other direction, and Keith saw at least two flying Pokémon being sent out in the few seconds he had sight of them.

They managed to make their way over to Max, who had stopped to think, his head shaking from side to side. "They're doing the same as in Laverre. We can't get through here. We need to go past." He sent natu out. "Danny?"

"You're crazy!"

"Most of them are here blocking. You know that's how they did it elsewhere. We can overwhelm them." Max lifted natu. "I'm going. Are you?"

Danny made a sound that couldn't be anything else than pure anger. "Dammit Max. Don't need to do this." Still, he placed his hand on the natu's head. "Alright. Can't let you go in alone."

"What the _hell_ is going on here?" Keith interrupted the two other boys, and for a moment, both of them glared at him. The looks on their faces – Max's in particular – almost frightened him. "Explain, now."

"Team Flare always puts most of their members on the perimeter to keep others out," Max said, gesturing into the distance with his free hand. "We're going to get them from behind and ruin their day."

Danny offered nothing but a shrug, even as his eyes shifted onto Max for a moment. "Why you?"

"Not enough time," Max said. "Look. Team Flare is dangerous. It's okay if you don't want to go. I won't blame you."

For a moment, the desire to run away threatened to overwhelm him, but Keith pushed it down. Turning your back on friends in need was against everything his mother had ever taught him. "Can natu take three?"

Keith was aware of Danny's mouth falling open, but now was not the time to laugh. "He'll be pooped, so I'll be down to four. Still should be enough."

"Then I'm going. But you're telling me everything after."

Danny's reply – sarcastic if the look on his face was anything to go by – was drowned out by a loud explosion and the sound of something collapsing.

Max spoke a single word, cold and harsh. Then the world blurred, jostling Keith as his hand felt stuck to natu's wing. It lasted for only a second, if that, but it might as well have been two minutes.

He took a moment to reorient himself after the Teleport, hearing Max returning natu. When he found his bearings, he saw that they were behind a fountain, hidden mostly from view. Keith recognised it as the plaza in front of the hotel, and a quick peek around the fountain's right confirmed that. A window was blown out while he looked as well. "They're inside," he observed.

"Two, maybe three. Hallways are terrible to fight in," Max told him. "I see three here. Two at the entrance, one at the plaza entrance." He ducked back. "Shit. Spotted. Pokémon. Now."

Ten Pokémon appeared: Max's grovyle, manectric, bagon, and honedge; Danny's dusclops, bunnelby, and swampert; while Keith sent out mightyena, golbat, and staryu.

Opposite them, he saw Pokémon amass: ten to match their ten, as varied as theirs were. Vanilluxe, houndoom, mightyena, scraggy, sneasel were some of the ones he recognised before a voice rang out across the plaza. "Well. Look who we have here," a deep-voiced man spoke up, stepping around the houndoom, uncaring of the twenty-odd Pokémon facing off. "Didn't have enough last time, _kid?"_

Last time? What? "What are you after now?" Max bit out, hands clenched so hard Keith saw them shake slightly. "Someone in the hotel?"

The black-haired man opposite them clapped. "Oh, at least a part of your brain is working. Or is it a guess? I can never tell with children." He snapped his fingers, and houndoom moved forward, mouth glowing with withheld flame. Swampert lumbered a step or two in response, making Keith miss a few words. "… want to see you hurt, but if you stay, I'll have to do that. Return your Pokémon, go sit behind the fountain and be good little boys."

Max, bagon, and manectric all bristled at the comment. "Not a chance."

"Shame." The man shook his head sadly. "Well. When talk fails to be the answer, the answer must be action."

And Max _shrieked_ in pain. Electricity danced over his body as he screamed, voice cracking, legs giving out, head hitting the soil hard. Keith took a step back. Honedge sliced in, batting something yellow away.

Electricity faded. Shrieking dulled, before being drowned out in a bellow of rage. Bagon launched himself forward, instantly firing a Dragon Pulse the size of Keith's head straight at the man opposite.

Flamethrower blocked it, and bagon was hit by three attacks at the same time, causing an explosion. He flew back, landing at his Trainer's feet, knocked out. Ringlets of icy smoke came off of him, and a small layer of frost covered bagon's helmet.

That was all he noticed before things got loud. Fast. The world coloured green as swampert threw up a Protect that covered all of them, while other Pokémon started to attack independently. "Keith! Check on Max!" he heard Danny yell. "I'll cover!"

Another explosion rocked them, a blast of cold wind washing over them as the air turned static and oppressing; manectric calling down the Thunder with all her might. Keith turned away from that, kneeling by Max and immediately seeing a small incision on his right arm. It wasn't bloody, but it looked burnt, trails of red going every way from the wound. He couldn't see how far, because Max was shaking badly as the electricity continued to have its effects. It looked like he was whimpering, but no sound came out.

Keith put two fingers to Max's neck, feeling for a heartbeat and finding it underneath clammy skin. It was fast, but regular. Breaths were shallow, hasty, ragged. The shaking diminished as he watched, but Keith knew it wasn't because Max was getting control over his body back. That wasn't how it worked.

Mightyena's tail wag hit Keith in his side, demanding attention. Keith took a look around, seeing most Flare Pokémon occupied with Danny and Max's Pokémon and the awe-inspiring amounts of electricity manectric was throwing around in particular. There was one Pokémon sprinting in towards them. "Defend us!" Keith ordered, and the canine barked, stepping forward and blocking a sneasel with Iron Tail, the attempted jump too easily countered. Keith looked away again, trusting his Pokémon to keep him safe, and the hovering honedge to warn him.

With a bit of effort, he dragged Max back a few steps. It wasn't good to move him, but the fight was too close. It did get Max's legs out from underneath him, at least. "Max? Can you hear me?"

Max's eyes focused on him for a split second, but his mouth didn't want to help. Still, he was conscious. That was really good. "Okay. Stay with me. I know everything hurts. Just stay with..."

"Keith! Golbat!" Danny interrupted, and Keith's head shot up, seeing golbat down on the ground, the tips of his wings frozen, a mightyena nearby. How the hell had that happened that fast?

He quickly returned the bat, seeing the enemy canine land snout-first on the ground, and sent out beautifly. "Careful, there's a houndoom!" he got off before beautifly immersed herself in battle with the mightyena, Silver Wind glowing on her wings. She'd be okay, and Keith returned his attention to Max as an explosion took his hearing away for a second.

Actually… "Floette, use Aromatherapy."

His white flower floette came out, easing Keith's breathing and visibly calming Max. The sweet smell even cleared whatever was stuck in his throat – not that he had noticed before it had vanished. She kept it up for about twenty seconds before pausing to regain her energy. "Just keep doing it, but don't tire yourself out."

Then Danny called. "Keith! Help!"

Praying Max understood, Keith quickly moved up and saw… chaos. The view of the other side was obscured with the smoke from explosions, and many Pokémon clashed in the middle. Swampert was besieged by two Pokémon: some kind of Fighting-type wearing a white gi, and a beartic trying to land crushing blows. Electricity and Ice shot across the field randomly. He couldn't see the houndoom, but he had to assume it was still around. Staryu was nearby, forcing vanilluxe back just as he got vision of his starter. "Staryu, Power Gem swampert!"

Swampert moved just enough for the Rock-type attack to hit the beartic in the midriff, but then staryu had to dance out of the way of several Swift stars. "Thanks. Supersonic! Your mightyena."

He noticed mightyena limping, the sneasel now battling Danny's bunnelby, and he returned the Dark-type for a moment before sending him out again, seeing matted blood on his right front paw. "What the hell?"

"They're – Protect – serious," Danny said, and dusclops blocked three huge attacks headed for Max's grovyle, who had taken over the fight with beartic. "Max?"

"Conscious. Nice!" Keith said as beautifly managed to finish off the mightyena with a powerful Silver Wind. "How's – what the!"

Sneasel and bunnelby had been in the corner of his eye after beautifly had started to fly over. They'd been trying to hit each other with claw and ear, but apparently, bunnelby was evolving right this instant, and sneasel beat a hasty retreat.

Right into beautifly's perfectly timed Whirlwind to send it back in. Diggersby slammed its big ears right into the sneasel, launching it at least fifty feet left, causing it to nearly crash into the houndoom that had reappeared to annoy grovyle. Max's starter had a green glow around him, and the Leaf Blade on his arms shifted in size with every slash: bigger, smaller, more curved, everything. Despite the type advantage, houndoom was treading very cautiously, scared of what the Grass-type was dishing out. "Staryu, grovyle! Good timing."

"Manectric, vanilluxe!" Danny ordered, before turning his head slightly. Sweat ran off his face, and their eyes met only for an instant. He almost seemed a stranger in that instant. "Use manectric. She'll listen. Whismur, watch out!"

How the hell was he noticing everything? Keith barely saw whismur throw up a Protect to block out an enemy golbat – when had that joined anyway – and saw that beautifly was flying over to help. Diggersby was nowhere to be seen, except for a hole, and he turned left, stepping around Danny's back to get the best view of the side-battle, trying to remember what manectric knew.

Then he saw an opening, right in between vanilluxe and the white-and-blue Pokémon assaulting swampert. "Manectric! Into the gap to your right, then Discharge!"

Diggersby launched itself from the ground at the Ice-type as well, effortlessly tanking the electricity like swampert did. Their opponents weren't so lucky. "Good call," Danny complimented, before a loud cry alerted both of them from the right. It sounded like whismur, except… "Two?"

Like diggersby before her, whismur was evolving as she rained down powerful round waves of sound energy on beartic. It wasn't Echoed Voice, but Keith didn't know which attack loudred actually used. It had results, that was all that mattered.

Beartic did care, and a Shadow Ball from on high announced ninjask's return, sending the Ice-type to its knees, unable to block grovyle's incoming Leaf Blade. Max's starter vaulted away, but his legs buckled under him as the Overgrow faded. "Dusclops, get him out," Danny ordered. "Beautifly's done for too."

Beautifly was looking singed, but it didn't matter that she needed to be returned. Only the vanilluxe and the unknown Pokémon still stood in their sight. The others had vanished, and the smoke was thin enough to allow Keith to make out shapes on the other side. There was one more Pokémon silhouette, but that looked like the houndoom.

Meanwhile, manectric, ninjask, swampert, dusclops, loudred, diggersby, and staryu were all still capable of fighting, and Keith still had tyrogue and chingling available, and Danny had two Pokémon left as well. "Did we win?"

The answer to that was drowned out as a massive gout of flame shot straight at them, but Danny was too quick, ordering Protects. Four layers sprang into life, one after the other, and even if one burst – and loudred skidded to a halt against swampert's blue-glowing feet behind her – the others held, protecting the group from harm. "Masquerain, ninjask, Gust!"

Groudon below! How did Danny know that. Gust dissipated the smokescreen that had suddenly appeared; Keith thought he had seen small explosions, but he wasn't sure behind the Protects. They saw five trainers jump off the cliff, and a blue hue surrounded at least two of them before they vanished from sight.

The only sound in the area was the alarm ringing in the hotel, loud and insistent enough that it made Keith wonder how the hell he hadn't heard it before.

He turned right to face Danny, only to find Danny not there. Keith turned more, and saw Danny kneel by Max, fingers hovering above the left, injured, arm.

Keith walked over, letting out a relieved sigh when he realised Max wasn't shaking or whimpering, although his body looked pretty slack. "Aromatherapy worked?" he asked, and Max replied by blinking his eyes once, a slight shudder running through his body after. "He needs medical attention, but he's conscious and aware. That's good," Keith told Danny, looking straight at him.

Relief flooded onto Danny's face, muscles relaxing, the Danny Keith knew reappearing. Somewhat. "Thanks," he said, opening his mouth twice more without any sound coming out. "Just thanks."

Whatever Keith wanted to reply was cut short as a Pokémon landed nearby with a heavy thump, showering them with dust and dirt, some of it getting into Keith's left eye. As he tried to get it out, he turned towards the source, seeing a Mega garchomp with a trainer on his back. Both of them looked battered: garchomp had more than a few scrapes and ice burns, while the trainer's face was dirty, his purple shirt torn in one place, hair unkempt.

It wasn't hard to recognise Professor Sycamore, even underneath all the grime. "Oh, boys… What are you doing here..."

 **~~§~~§~~**

The platforms went up, revealing a full Coumarine Theatre. Serena instantly found her friends, sitting in one of the front rows, off to the side. Amusingly, the aisle seat next to Danny was empty, but that was all she could notice before Monsieur Pierre told them and the audience what would have to be done. They were the first group up, and the other two in her group also had one Princess Key.

It was easy enough. Bake three Poké Puffs, have a Pokémon visibly help, and whoever had the best Poké Puffs made it to the finals. Serena had just the recipe ready for that, and she had shared it with braixen before coming up.

With a loud cheer, the audience told them to get started. "Braixen, you know what to do."

As Serena gathered the ingredients for a Poké Puff mix on auto-pilot, her mind went to that empty seat. Max wasn't there, stuck in the Pokémon Center on a medical check-up. It was probably going to be a clean bill of health, but there were no exceptions on the scheduling, much to his dismay. Something with a doctor doing this after shifts were over or something. Serena hadn't caught the details.

Looking down, she noticed she'd added too much flour to her bowl. Weighing it quickly – thankful for the pre-adjusted scale – she saw it was easily fixed without having to scoop flour out. She'd just have to make five Puffs instead of three. Doable.

She added the rest of the ingredients, starting to mix them together, a tune her mother always sang while baking suddenly appearing in her head. It made the time go faster, even if she had to mix a bit more because there was more in her bowl. Still, she had plenty of time left.

Putting the bowl on the stove, she reached for the white and red piping bag, squeezing a tiny bit of cream out of it to gauge the flavour. Intensely hot spices assaulted her tongue, and she turned to see what braixen had selected.

Occa Berries. That explained it. She thought for a second if she wanted to change it as braixen blew a gentle flame onto the stove, slightly heating the mix in a way that Serena knew would lead to a richer flavour. She decided against it: the cream wasn't going to be on there without other ingredients.

She took the second ingredient braixen had given her: a bottle of lime juice, and squirted some of it into the bowl. She had to sneeze as the after-effects of the Occa Berry cream hit her sinuses, creating a bit of a mess on the counter, but all was good. After some more stirring to make sure the juice had been properly added to the mix, braixen created five balls of dough to put into the oven. With a happy twirl, Serena shut the door on them, setting the temperature and duration just right.

The cream mix was easy enough to make: a bit of milk and water to dilute the intense spiciness down to manageable, and voilà, she had her topping.

Ten minutes later, she presented the three best-looking Poké Puffs to the judges, waiting with bated breath.

Ten more minutes later, she sat down in the dressing room, dejected. Her Puffs hadn't been good enough. She was out, not really knowing why because they wouldn't get feedback until the Theme Performance was over. At twenty-three contestants, that'd be in a few hours.

The girl who had won sat down next to her, her blonde hair out of the strict ponytail she had worn it in earlier. Serena thought she was from Snowbelle. "Hey. I think I know why you lost."

"Excuse me?" Serena said, heat rising in her chest. Did she have to rub salt in the wound just after winning?

Hands came up. "Sorry. I'm blunt. Just how I am." That calmed Serena down just enough to make her not boil over. "I was watching you. Remember when you sneezed?"

"Yeah?"

"You squeezed the juice, and a lot of it went into your mix." She made a grab for the small plastic bag with the two remaining Poké Puffs, and Serena was too slow to stop her. "Taste."

Serena took a careful nibble, seeing no harm in it. Her tongue was immediately assaulted by an overly acidic taste, with the spiciness a distant second, instead of the two balancing each other out. It was still edible, but not… good. Or good enough. "You're right." She offered the Poké Puff to her competitor, her azumarill, and braixen, and each took a nibble. Braixen made a face as the sourness hit; Serena knew her starter disliked sour food. Azumarill loved it, and Serena handed it the rest of the Poké Puff and the bag. "That stinks. Out because I made a stupid error."

"I fell in my heels in my last Theme Performance," the other girl shared candidly. "Fell off the catwalk too. Some Pokémon caught me before I hit the ground."

Serena didn't quite know what to say to that. "Well…" she said at length. "Good luck. Try to win it!"

 **~~§~~§~~**

"Well, Mr. Maple, I can safely say you have a clean bill of health," the doctor informed Max as the teen scratched an itchy patch of skin on his shoulder. "The electrocardiograms didn't show any abnormalities, your lungs sound good, your tetanus shot is still up to date, and the slight amnesia of the moment, while unfortunate, is common and should have done no lasting harm to any of your faculties." A stethoscope clattered onto a cart. "Is there anything you would like to know?"

"There aren't any restrictions on travelling?" Max asked, standing up from the bed and stretching. He saw the wound on his right arm, closed and healing, as did the skin around it. "We kind of want to get to Lumiose," he explained when he saw the doctor raise an eyebrow.

"As long as you take care of yourself, no. That means stopping when you get dizzy, but considering you told me about not having been that, I think you'll do fine." A smirk appeared underneath the man's grey-white moustache, and Max blushed. "Now be off, go do stuff outside. It's a beautiful day, and teenagers like you shouldn't be cooped up."

Max left the room after bowing to thank the man and walked on outside, picking up his Holo Caster first just in case. He wasn't expecting a call since the others were at the Showcase and the building had a no-call policy, but who knew. He set out for the theatre, which was about a ten minute walk from the Center.

But as he walked through the wide streets, office buildings and houses alike on the side, he started to feel that the Coumarine Theatre wasn't where he wanted to be right now. The idea of spending more time inside, after having been inside for two days already, forced by Nurse Joy and then by Danny, didn't feel right. When the time came to turn right to the Showcase, Max went left towards the city limit. He knew from earlier exploration that there was a secluded training field there, and it had been empty when he had found it earlier that week.

It was empty now as well. Max sat down on a bench on the side, quickly scribbling a note before telling natu to deliver it back to their room. The little Psychic bird Teleported out, the disappearing whish calling the reason why he was here to mind.

He'd been amazingly stupid, and stupid lucky. He knew Team Flare weren't against attacking people directly: how often had he seen that in the news? Hadn't he been the one on the ground with a sneasel's claw to his neck three months back? He should have seen it coming. Ranged attacks would just be stopped by any of their more powerful Pokémon, but a joltik sneaking up and unloading a Thunder Fang? That went right past the defences, and Nurse Joy had told him his honedge had probably saved him from serious damage by batting the joltik off.

Danny wasn't sure what had happened to it, but for all Max cared, it had fallen into the ocean below.

Bagon had come off worse than Max, being hit by two powerful Ice Beams and something else that didn't have lasting elemental effects. He was a dragon, and was okay now, but the attacks had hit and intermingled just right.

Just his bad luck that they had come prepared to steal the Garchompite, Ice Pokémon included. The team that had gone into the hotel had been all Ice and Fairy-types, Professor Sycamore had told him early yesterday. Unfortunately for them, a security guard had managed to sound the alarm, and, well, Mega garchomp was pretty powerful.

The hotel did need severe renovations, and Max smiled as he remembered the Professor shrugging nonchalantly after sharing that.

He had even understood why Max had rushed in, but the language… That had been something else entirely. Something about the flames of passion when seeing a wrong. It sounded like it came straight from a book his mother would read, and Max didn't mean that as a compliment.

Besides, he was pretty certain it wasn't passion.

He stopped himself there, noticing natu looking at him from the bench's right armrest. He hadn't even noticed the bird coming back. "Thanks natu. You put it on Danny's bed?" A chirp that Max interpreted as a yes. "Wanna stay out?"

The natu repeated himself, hopping down and settling on the bench next to his trainer and closing his eyes to bask in the afternoon sun. On a whim, Max sent out bagon and vulpix as well, confident that both would also enjoy the weather.

Of course bagon tried to nestle himself in Max's side, but he told the dragon no. Not when he still wanted to be able to reach the spot one of the electrodes had been attached to his body. He scratched it through his shirt, watching bagon settle against a wall and close his eyes. Vulpix was lying on the wall above him, curled up and looking asleep already.

Max knew that was not true, but anyone else would be hard pressed to spot the difference.

Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention, but it turned out to be nothing, the arena as empty as it had been earlier. He did notice scorch marks he hadn't seen before, neither just now nor earlier that week. Someone had probably worked with their Fire-type for a challenge on Ramos.

And then his Holo Caster rang. Max nearly jumped off of the bench, surprised as the device went off, but he managed to stay seated long enough to stand up somewhat gracefully and answer it. "Yeah?"

"Where are you?" Danny asked. "Keith, Jane and I are outside the Theatre. Serena was eliminated, and she wanted to stay, but we… You done with that medical exam?"

"Yeah, but..."

He heard Danny sigh at the other end. If Max knew his friend, it was probably some mix between exasperated and fond, but the sound quality wasn't _that_ good. "Just be back at the Center for dinner, okay? And don't beat yourself up too much."

"That's your job?" Max shot back, a bit of regret creeping in after he had said it. "Uh..."

"That is my job," Danny happily confirmed, to Max's surprise. He had expected something a bit angrier. "And as long as you remember that, I won't have to do it again."

The 'hopefully' was left unsaid, but Max knew it was on Danny's mind. "I'll be back for dinner. Probably earlier."

After exchanging farewells, Danny ended the call, and Max put the Holo Caster back on his belt, sitting back down.

Danny had been _livid_ the day before, to the point of Nurse Joy poking her head in to ask if everything was alright. That had been embarrassing for both of them, easily beating the more mushy exchange after about how worried he had been for the moments that Max had been in the ambulance and the hospital. In the chaos of the aftermath, nobody had really been able to talk to him. Even if Max had been discharged after an hour, he knew that an hour was a long time to wait for someone when there was no information.

And the information that had filtered through hadn't been pretty. Max had gotten off lucky. One woman's arm had been torched with third degree burns, a security officer had broken his collar bone, some Ghost-type had managed to get inside a bystander's head, leading to seizures and psychotic episodes that had apparently forced hospital security to react harshly… The list went on, really. Somehow, nobody had died when one of the buildings had collapsed, but all said and done, about forty people ended up wounded. Seven of them were still in the hospital the last Max had heard. The Pokémon Center had been overloaded as well, with Pokémon even being transported away to the nearest high capacity Centers in Lagoon and Lumiose so they could be treated.

It was the single largest amount of casualties in years by a villainous team.

Just that fact made Max's stomach twist in anger. He had no idea what they wanted – travelling with Ash had taught him that every team had a goal – but the fact that they were attacking everyone else in getting what they wanted was enough for him.

He was going to stand against them. If that meant having to go look for them like he had on Friday, he would. If that meant he would be injured again, so be it. There were things worth fighting for.

And if Danny didn't like that, he could buzz off.

 **~~§~~§~~**

In a hidden basement underneath a spacious home on Saint Julia in the Azure Bay, Aliana regarded three of her male subordinates. Their report about the failed Coumarine raid had been satisfactory, yet questions remained. Although… "Tristan, leave. Your team performed adequately."

The dark-skinned man in his twenties, responsible for the perimeter of the operation, left, leaving the two others. "Nathan," she addressed the one on the right. "You were overwhelmed by the garchomp and security despite taking every precaution to engage with it?"

She listened as he passionately listed the ways in which his team had prepared for taking out a garchomp. Ice-types for offence, Fairy-types to defend, a buneary and a chimecho to rejuvenate essential tired Pokémon… It was an impressive list, albeit not impressive enough. He also seemed to be putting much of the blame on Darius not sending in someone to flank security from behind as had apparently been planned. "Darius?"

"Kids Teleporting in wasn't in my consideration. Don't know how their brains work, if at all, but it was why Alonso couldn't join the hotel team," her second in command conceded with a sour look on his face.

Aliana dismissed Nathan with a nod of her head, and the man left, using a crutch to move. "You said they were known entities. Elaborate, please."

"Two of them were the same ones that interfered with the Glittering Cave. The third was an unknown, but clearly affiliated with them," Darius stated. "I sent my visor to HQ for video extraction. We'll be able to name two of them soon enough."

The Team Flare scientist raised an eyebrow. "Two?"

"I only started recording after the fight broke out. All that's missed was joltik dealing with the boy and his bagon being blasted. There are no visuals of his face in there."

That was understandable enough. "You mentioned the third boy checked on the one you eliminated from the equation. How did you still lose?" There was no answer for ten seconds, prompting Aliana to start drumming her fingers on the desk. "Quick observations will do."

"The boy we took out sent out four Pokémon. Didn't see much of the honedge, and the bagon you know," Darius started cautiously, fidgeting. "But the grovyle and especially the manectric were major pains, and then two other Pokémon evolved. Individual flukes, but enough of them to overcome us."

Aliana sent her second in command off, sensing she'd get no more out of it. Unbeknownst to him, she had already seen half of the fight from Alonso's perspective, and she had been begrudgingly impressed with the strength of the teenagers and their Pokémon. She'd have to see the full battle, but it appeared they had gone up against a foe with superior teamwork and Pokémon capable of working autonomously. It was a strange thing to see in Trainers so young – she certainly didn't remember that being so important when she had done a circuit years ago when she was twelve – but that didn't matter.

Such fascinating little Trainers they were. Hardly strong enough to stop them, but the journey was as important as the end result sometimes. It would please her so to know that they had tried and failed once Team Flare reigned supreme.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Earlier today, the Holo Caster Network across much of the Kalosian North suffered an unexpected outage. For approximately two hours, our services were unavailable, although we are glad to report that all customers are once again able to use the Network. We apologise to any affected customers for the inconvenience, and doubly so to those affected by the Coumarine attack that happened while the outage was ongoing._

 _In light of_ _an_ _ongoing police investigation, we cannot yet share any information regarding the cause of the outage. If and when this changes, Lysandre Labs will make a new statement reflecting the situation._

* * *

 **Author's** **Note:** Rushing in without a real plan has its downsides. There's only so much you can brute force, after all. And sometimes, even plans go awry because of a stupid thing, like sneezing.

The white and blue Pokémon Keith didn't recognise was a sawk.


	16. As Normal

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter** **16: As Normal**

It was a rather clammy night in Petalburg as Norman and Caroline returned from the restaurant. The humid season was starting early, and Norman made a mental note to call a handyman to check up on their air conditioner for maintenance. Thankfully, he could write that off as a business expense on his taxes, which also needed to be completed sometime this week. He also had two battles already scheduled, and the inspection agency was due for their bi-yearly visit sometime this May as well… So many things to do, so little time.

As they entered their home, a loud bang disturbed the silent streets. It sounded like a door being blown off its handles, but before Norman could send out a swellow to go and have a look, the Pokénav on his belt rang.

What he heard were words he had hoped never to hear. _"Dark and Ghost-type attack across Petalburg South. Send help now,"_ said an unknown woman, but Norman didn't need to verify her identity. The only ones who had the number were his children, the local Pokémon Center, the local police department, and other Gym Leaders. He'd bet anything it was a police clerk.

More bangs from outside, and Caroline, coming out of the toilet, looked at him, visibly suppressing fear. "It's here, isn't it?" she asked, and all Norman could do was nod. "Then there's no time to waste."

The Gym Leader smiled despite the knot of worry in his stomach. Everyone knew he was the Gym Leader, and his Pokémon were strong to match. Few knew that Caroline had been an accomplished Trainer in her youth as well, and though she hadn't kept up as religiously as Norman had, she was still just as capable of working with Pokémon as she had been when they had been married.

They hurried to what the household jokingly called the Pokémon Room. Every Gym Leader had something of the sort, except the Dragon-type Gym, which had an entire island. In it, they kept all their Pokémon, of all kinds. Norman had over twenty himself, and another dozen and a half were holdovers from the Gym Leader before him. He quickly grabbed eleven capsules of his own, while Caroline chose another six. "Not girafarig, dear. Dark-types will wreck her," Norman commented, and he saw her grab castform's ball. "Interesting choice."

"Houndour and nuzleaf," his wife of twenty years replied, and Norman nodded. The rare Pokémon wasn't very strong, and almost never made it into battles, but there was more to defending than pure strength. "Be careful."

They went back onto the street, Caroline going left to the nearby retirement home and stores while Norman sent out all of the fliers he had on him: pidgeotto, two swellow, and a noctowl. "Swellow, noctowl, you know what to do. Pidgeotto, scout for me."

With those orders given, Norman ran off, and it wasn't long before he saw the first rampaging Pokémon.

Dealing with a poochyena wasn't hard, and vigoroth dazed it long enough for its owner – a boy who barely looked ten, let alone twelve, to lock it back in its ball. The damage was a snapped stick, a garden gnome, and a scratch or two on the boy.

Sadly, Norman knew this was an outlier, and he hurried to the nearby food district.

As he came closer, having to fight against a torrent of people running away, he started hearing shouts and attacks; other Trainers fighting to stem the tide. That could be good.

It was bad. Upon arriving on one of the squares, he saw a mass of Dark and Ghost-types launching attacks every which way except on themselves. The Trainers had the group surrounded, but they were protecting buildings: restaurants, cafés, one stray electronics store. Several Pokémon were down already, lying on the ground behind a nearby group, two Trainers feeding them something.

He couldn't afford to go easy. "Furret, Foresight the group. Slaking, exploud, snorlax: Hyper Beam!"

Some of the Ghosts avoided the incoming attack by going up, while a few other attacks, Dark Pulses, Shadow Balls and the like, tried to intercept the Hyper Beams. Fortunately, the attacks only diminished, not stopped, and the orange beams cut a swathe through the group, sending at least five Pokémon flying away from the main group, allowing other Pokémon, his own vigoroth and furret included, to dive on them with tooth, claw, and body.

A snarl alerted Norman to a mightyena getting up feet away. In the split second he had before the canine lunged, he saw its eyes: enraged, feral, consumed by bloodlust. The collar told Norman it was a trained Pokémon, but that didn't matter. He jumped out of the way, rolling on the ground and getting up immediately to see ursaring wrestle it to the ground, pidgeotto dive-bombing it with fierce screeches. "Knock them all out!"

Slaking hurtled itself into a part of the remaining group, dishing out punches left and right, while snorlax lumbered after it before launching itself in the air, Body Slamming the area and causing a small tremor that unsettled many Pokémon, but not Norman's. Exploud had stuck with Norman himself, and he heard, rather than saw, the Loud Noise Pokémon dispatch a murkrow.

He ran over to the nearest bunch of Trainers, seeing two beams of red light return a Pokémon from the snorlax and slaking fight pit. One of them was someone he'd seen a day back. "Denise, good to see you're alright. Everyone inside safe?"

The Kalosian teenager, about May's age, looked over, her blue-and-green dyed hair pasted onto her face. "Yes," she said as her florges blasted a zweilous with something Fairy-type. "We're all from the restaurant. Others inside hiding."

There was some derision in her voice, but Norman ignored it. "Good. Keep hold—"

The reason he interrupted himself was the Pokénav on his belt going off, though he couldn't hear the tone. Ducking into a the restaurant's entrance, he took the call. "Yes?!"

" _Hospital … attack… gent!"_

The message was garbled and barely audible over the sound of attacks outside, but he understood enough. He was needed. "Who has a Teleport or flight-capable Pokémon!" he yelled as he marched back outside, casting an eye over the surprisingly clear square. Only a few Pokémon were left fighting, while many of the Dark and Ghost-types were knocked out on the ground or being returned. "Anyone?"

"I do," an older man spoke up from behind him, standing in the doorway of the restaurant. It was someone Norman's age, with salt and pepper hair, and a serious five o'clock shadow. The Gym Leader thought he had seen the man before, though he could be mistaken. "A charizard. Where do you need to go?"

"The hospital." Norman returned most of his Pokémon. "I'll leave exploud to help you with clean-up and others. Can one of you deliver it to my Gym or to the Pokémon Center?" Denise raised her hand as her florges shielded the group from a Dark Pulse. "As for charizard..."

"The lump'll find his way home," its Trainer said as the Fire-type came out. It was a magnificent specimen, looking almost as powerful as the ones he had seen Ash and Flannery use in the recent past. "Or if you want to bring him back yourself..."

The address was about five minutes south of the Gym; a house Norman had seen as being for sale, but last he had checked, it had been empty. Admittedly, that had been three months ago.

He spurred the charizard on high, giving him an overview of the city for a moment. Several more squares had heavy fighting, but attacks flew into the air all over., illuminating the night sky. Thankfully, the area near their home appeared to be calm. Caroline was safe, it seemed.

Then he set course for the hospital, flying several hundred feet above ground to avoid being hit by any stray attacks. It was comparatively chilly up here, and as charizard started moving, Norman felt the wind's drag fight with the Fire-type's heat.

What would have been a twenty minute run on a good day was a three minute flight, and the Gym Leader instantly saw why they had called for help. A group of thirty or so Dark-types – just Dark-types, curiously – was trying everything to get into the hospital, and while there were various people defending, it was hard to fight against such overwhelming numbers.

Time to even the odds.

It was far past midnight when Norman opened the front door, muscles aching beyond belief, arm throbbing with pain, his shirt torn and his shoes still sticky with something or other. Either blood or attack residue or whatever. Norman honestly couldn't find it in himself to care about what exactly it was.

Caroline was still awake, and the two embraced for a moment, drawing comfort from each other. Then she took his uninjured arm and led him over to their living room. A first aid kit had been set up near the videophone. Odd. That wasn't his normal seat, but Caroline led him to it anyway. "Max already called. Twice. He said he'd call in five minutes."

The clock on the wall told Norman it was twenty to one. That made it… Twenty to five in Kalos? "How does he know?"

Caroline started cleaning some of the superficial scrapes that the hospital staff hadn't dealt with when bandaging his arm. Norman couldn't blame them for that either. "TV, internet…" she offered a few explanations. "Ask him..." The videophone started ringing. "Yourself..."

She stepped away, heading to their kitchen as Norman answered. "Hello son,' he said as he waited for the video to actually work, wincing at how weak and tired he sounded.

He hadn't been expecting to see _four_ Petalburg faces, but there they were. The three boys looked far more worried than children their age had any right to, though Max was trying to hide it. Jane was probably the same, come to think of it. "Hey Dad. I'd ask if you're okay, but..."

"I'm banged up," Norman finished bluntly. "It was chaotic, and a weavile got through to me." He was still angry he hadn't seen the weavile coming. He should have kept track of his surroundings. "Jane, your parents are okay. Both of them were at the hospital, but we repelled the attack there. I didn't speak to them, but they were going around helping in the ER."

The only girl nodded, and Norman now knew that she had been putting on a brave face. A lot of weight just vanished from her shoulders. "Danny," he continued, "your parents aren't in town. Business trip for your mother."

Danny put a hand to his forehead, slapping himself. "Oh, right. I forgot," he said sheepishly, and Max's eyes went up into his skull for a second.

"And my Mum?" the oldest of the group asked, his face even more drawn than before.

"I don't know," Norman said slowly. "But the area that was affected ended around your home. She should be fine."

"Who should be, dear?" Caroline said as she re-entered the room, carrying a bowl of vegetable soup and placing it nearby. "Oh, hello Jane, Keith. I didn't know you had met up with Max and Danny."

"My Mum," Keith clarified before Norman could.

"She's safe," Caroline stated, and the Gym Leader turned around to look at his wife. "She was at work at the time. The only thing that happened to her was being kept inside until everything was safe."

Oh, right, Keith's mother worked in the nearby nursing home. Norman had honestly forgotten. "All that's well ends well."

"Except for the wounded and the property damage, and the attack itself," his son stated darkly, taking Norman slightly aback. Thirteen was far too young to be a cynic. "How's the wound, Dad? Weavile got you good?"

"Haven't had a wound this big since I was your age," he replied honestly. "One moment of not paying attention was all it needed. Let that be a lesson to you. Always keep your eyes on hostile Pokémon." He thought he saw eyes go to Max, but a yawn overcame him at the same time, forcing him to close his eyes. "Is there anything else you want to know?"

"Just one thing," Danny spoke up for the first time, cutting across Max, who probably wanted to ask a million questions. "How accurate is the news?"

Norman listened as Danny listed a few things they had heard or read, and found that most of it seemed factual enough. He wasn't certain on some of them, but being stuck in an emergency debriefing hadn't given him the best overview of all the facts; just the pertinent ones. "Sounds okay, except for the fire up north. That was probably unrelated. Remember that nothing north of your old school was affected as far as we know."

"Right. Go rest some, s… Norman. I'm sure you need it."

Dismissed by a thirteen year old. Goodness, that was perhaps the strangest thing he'd been through all day. He couldn't disagree, though, and after eating half a bowl of soup with one hand – the other occupied by Caroline as she put a new bandage on the wound – and taking some heavy duty painkillers, they went to bed.

 **~~§~~§~~**

It was the day before the Lumiose Conference would start, but it didn't appear like they'd be able to make it to Lumiose that day, Max reflected as he looked outside after getting off the call with his Dad, the morning after they'd heard about the attack in Petalburg. Just like the day before, the air was churning with harsh winds and even at eight in the morning, bolts of lightning occasionally lit up the clouds above. For now, the electricity stuck to the clouds, but that probably wouldn't last. It already looked a lot like three in the afternoon the day before, and thunderstorms had properly started just after their call to the Gym.

The call had answered most of Max and Danny's questions, but a few had popped up instead. Worse, they were the kind of questions his Dad couldn't answer because he didn't know about everything, or because he didn't know like normally.

Baltoy hadn't been able to do much while affected by the signal, back in July, but from the way his father had described it, these Pokémon had been relatively well-controlled. 'Feral-like', but capable of planning attacks and using strategy. Had whoever was behind it found a way to improve the signal? Or was it because the Pokémon they were using to create the signal was more suited for it? Ralts hadn't been the most cooperative subject, he remembered reading.

The second thing really vexed him. How had all those nearby Dark-types gathered to attack the hospital? And why there?

"Thinking about everything?" Danny asked softly as he placed a plate with sunny side up eggs in front of Max. The lounge was understandably quiet, both because not a lot of Trainers were here and because it was early. "That was one nasty wound."

It had been. Half the forearm's length, about a finger wide, and bleeding enough to force a change of bandage every four hours or so. "Not what I was thinking about, but yeah," Max replied as he started on his breakfast. "Tell you later what I was thinking about," he added as he spotted a third of their group entering. "Morning Jane."

"Morning," the shy girl greeted, making to walk to the kitchen, but Danny beckoned her over, shoving his plate of pancakes aside. They shared their taste in breakfast. "Thank you, Danny."

"Not a problem," was the reply. "Any others coming?"

Jane shook her head and Danny left, leaving the two of them at the table, spending a minute or so eating before the silence was broken. "Called already? Anything new?"

"Clearer casualty numbers, property damage. Nothing about who did it." Not that either of them was expecting that, but after dealing with Team Flare, who did claim responsibility, it was worth mentioning. "Your parents are safe, but probably still sleeping. Dad asked about them, and they did a fifteen hour shift that ended about when I went to bed." Max saw Jane digest that, and he went back to his breakfast, not expecting a reply.

"Wish I'd been there," Jane said, nearly making Max bite his tongue.

"Why?"

The glare Jane sent told Max that she considered him too stupid to breathe without help. "To defend my home. _You_ should know about that."

Max put his hands up apologetically. "Sorry. Not everyone's… So eager," he finished lamely.

Even now, he still had no idea why Keith had come with them to fight Team Flare. Compared to Max or even Danny, he was extremely cautious, having been the one objecting to staying out in the open for a few nights. The others were fine with it, though, and he had been overruled.

"It's the right thing to do. Not everyone agrees, but they're idiots, not me."

Harsh words, but Max could agree with the sentiment. Before he could reply, Danny came running into the lounge. "Max! Jane! Come! Come!"

He was on his feet before he knew it, fork clattering onto the floor. Danny's eyes went wide, while Jane stood up more sedately, giving him a self-satisfied smirk. "Sorry. Bit on edge," Max mumbled.

At least both of them seemed to accept that. "There's a zapdos!"

Wait. What? Did he hear that right? "Zapdos? Where?"

"In the clouds! Hurry!"

Danny led them to the kitchen, slipping into the cooking area and stopping in front of a window facing the badlands that were Route 13. The cook and his helpers didn't protest; they were looking through the next window down the wall. "Up there. See?"

Max did, even before Danny pointed it out. The zapdos was hard to miss, engulfed in electricity as it was. It appeared to be gathering the electricity from the clouds overhead, and all the discharges that had been there before had stopped. "What's it doing?" Jane asked as she unclasped her Pokédex from her belt.

 _Zapdos, the Electric Pokémon. This Legendary bird Pokémon is said to live in thunderclouds. When it appears from those clouds, it will often drop enormous lightning bolts._

Right on cue, the Legendary did just that, and the intensity of the white-hot flash forced Max to close his eyes. He heard the lightning strike the ground nearby, the crack-bang of a nearby impact loud enough to cause glass to tremble, to reverberate in the building; in Max's body even. A second and third crack followed, slightly less powerful, but no less impressive.

Max opened his eyes to see the zapdos go into a spiralling dive, still attracting and unleashing tons of electricity, sharp crackling audible through the glass, however faint. The Legendary levelled out about ten feet above the ground, unleashing something that looked like a normal Discharge attack, peppering the ground with smaller jolts of electricity.

It screeched shrilly; the sound tearing through everything, walls, glass, bodies, like it was nothing. Then, with one last look in the direction of the Pokémon Center, the zapdos flew away, leaving various awestruck people in the kitchen.

"Such power..." Danny whispered reverently, about half a minute after it had left. "Almost terrifying to think that one Pokémon is that powerful."

Jane made a sound of agreement, and Max, though he had seen a few other powerful Legendaries, had to agree. There was something about the zapdos, about electricity, that made the display even more impressive. More visceral? Was that the word?

It came as no surprise that Serena and Keith joined the other three in the lounge ten minutes later, bleary-eyed and slightly disgruntled at being awake, then more annoyed that they had missed the zapdos. It was an early start for them, but honestly, only the dead would have slept through something like that.

When Max and Danny went out a few hours later, to do a no holds barred spar on the empty dry terrain, they made sure to pass by the place the lightning had struck. It was maybe five minutes away from the Center, and once they got there, they saw first-hand what the strikes had done. Amidst the red soil, three charred craters had appeared, black tendrils snaking away from them, following the cracks in the stones.

Max wondered if those cracks had been there before the morning.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Professor Sycamore's laboratory was just as Max remembered it from the one time he had visited it before. He'd been asked to come here at some point during their stay in Lumiose. It was past dinner, though still light outside, and everyone had just gone their own way for the night after watching a couple of matches in the Lumiose Conference. Serena was catching up with some of her friends, Danny and Keith had gone to see some action film Max didn't care too much about, and Jane… She was probably drawing something all by herself, which was the way she liked it.

He was almost certain he knew why he had been invited. When the invitation came with a suggestion to bring manectric and her 'accessory', it wasn't hard to figure out. He wasn't sure what to think about it: he hadn't had a chance to talk to Ash yet about Mega Evolution.

Hell, he hadn't talked to Ash in nearly two months. The last time they did, the newly minted third place winner in the Champion's League had said he wanted to take a holiday away from everything. Max had had his doubts then, and after two months of not being in contact and Professor Oak looking decidedly shifty the one time Max had asked… He had a few guesses where Ash was, and they weren't exactly holiday destinations.

Kadabra opened the door, and Max remembered the last time he'd been here. Specifically, the Psychic-type had Teleported Serena into his life. He entered the foyer, hearing the door close behind him, and stopped, looking straight at the Pokémon. "Good to see you again, kadabra. You here to Teleport me to the Professor?"

The surprised look on kadabra's face made Max chuckle, even as he was Teleported away with a gentle push.

He appeared in a room he hadn't ever seen before. From the look of it, it was the Professor's den, with comfortable chairs and sofas, and a radio playing some older songs. Out of habit, Max pressed a hand to his pocket, where the Manectite had been put onto a twine necklace. It was one normally used to hold pokéballs, but the mechanism worked the same on a Mega Stone.

"Oh, hello Max," the Professor greeted him from behind, and Max turned around to see the Professor and a boy Max's age sit side by side at the computer. The Professor looked the same as he had the week before, but the boy reminded Max of something. "Trevor, this is Max, from Hoenn. Max, this is Trevor. He's a Trainer and Pokémon photographer."

Trevor stood up to greet Max, bowing deeply before extending a hand. "Max, right? That name sounds so familiar," the Kalosian boy said in a fairly high pitched voice. His free hand went to his forehead, swiping orange hair out of his face. "Can't remember where from..."

Max returned the bow as they ended their shake, likewise having to move his hair away from his eyes. "Aren't you friends with Shauna and Tierno?" he wondered, and the way Trevor responded confirmed that. "Two of my friends spent an afternoon with them. Back in Cyllage."

"Oh, right! The Showcase that Shauna lost." His face fell. "Maybe not the best way of saying it… Why weren't you with them?"

"Something came up," Max lied easily as he walked up to the computer. The picture on the screen was one of a charmeleon engulfed in a Flame Charge, racing towards something off-screen. "You're a photographer, huh. My best friend – Danny – is too. You two should get together. sometime. Discuss photography stuff I don't understand."

"Perhaps that's best for another time," Sycamore interrupted. "It's half past seven and your father's been standing in the doorway for a few minutes, Trevor. I think he wants to go home."

"Oh, sorry!" the boy said, rushing towards the adult. The two hugged for a second, and Max clearly saw the family resemblance after they separated. Same colour hair, similar faces, and even the style was similar, except the adult's hair crept up higher. "I'll leave my camera here for you, okay? I'll come pick it up tomorrow morning!"

The Professor only made a shooing motion, and the two left, twin footsteps on stairs fading abruptly as Sycamore closed the door. "I didn't know your group had met Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor?" He motioned towards the sitting area.

Max took the offer, dropping into a large chair with high armrests and a back that'd tower over Danny, let alone him. It was probably big enough to lie his feet in and still be comfortable to sit in, but that wasn't polite. "Danny and Serena have. Shauna was in a Showcase we visited, and they went up to her after she won. I think Serena and Shauna have been trying to keep in touch, but we didn't know they'd be here."

"I see," the Professor said as he walked over to a drawer. From it, he took a simple necklace, but the thing on it caught Max's attention instantly. "I take it you guessed why I wanted to talk to you. It wasn't exactly rocket science." The adult sat down in a chair opposite him, the Key Stone necklace lying on the coffee table between them. "Before we start, I want you to stop me if I'm getting too technical. I sometimes forget not everyone knows the things I do."

Max nodded in understanding. "I'll do that if I don't understand."

"Good. Now, first off, we currently recognise two major requirements for Mega Evolution. First, the process requires a certain proximity," Sycamore started his lecture. "Especially at first, Trainer and Pokémon need to be close to each other. This doesn't necessarily mean they have to be touching, and as Mega Evolutions are quite energetic, that can be harmful, but neither can they be an entire arena apart. With time, the limits are loosened, but still present.

"Secondly, the Mega Stone and Key Stone must be on Pokémon and Trainer respectively. Skin contact isn't required, but right now, neither of us would be able to use the Key Stone." Both of them glanced down at the coffee table. The necklace was maybe six feet away from the Professor, and a bit more from Max. "This continues to be true while the Pokémon is in its Mega state, though getting the Mega Stone away from the Pokémon is obviously not possible any longer."

"What about proximity during battles?" Max wondered as the adult paused. "Did you ever test that?"

Professor Sycamore beamed at Max. "An excellent question. It is only anecdotal, but I know Diantha's gardevoir can Mega Evolve, then Teleport nearly a quarter mile, and it did not force her to revert. Given that this is a gardevoir, and their bonding with Trainers is well documented, that distance is probably an outlier. I'm actually in the process of setting up an experiment for this. Maybe you can help?"

Max shook his head. "That's assuming manectric and I can get it to work, and me being here."

"Where there's a will, there's a way," was the reply. "On to the second requirement, which is the connection between Trainer and Pokémon. It's… Yes?"

"Steven Stone said it needed a special bond," Max said, diving into his memory to try and recall the exact quote. "Something about absolute trust?"

The black-haired man raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Steven Stone. Hoenn's Champion. I don't recall him saying that in any of his broadcasts." He shook his head, resuming his lecture before Max could interrupt. "Regardless, he is right. You would not be able to enable garchomp's Mega Evolution, nor would I meet the requirements for manectric. A strong bond is an absolute necessity. Samuel said that it took your friend close to three months of daily interaction to forge the bond with his absol."

It took Max a moment to realise Samuel meant Professor Oak.

"A strong bond alone is not enough, however.," Professor Sycamore continued, getting on to his feet and starting to pace. "Trainer and Pokémon need to be in perfect synchronisation; their minds and hearts set towards the same goal, their thoughts functionally identical. It is not enough for you and your Pokémon to just resonate on an emotional level. You should be extensions of each other; different, but equal. With time, this does become easier as neural pathways form, but a certain amount of focus remains required. It is hypothesised that too harsh a shift in goals will disjoint those pathways, but for now, that remains untested." The Professor looked down at Max, kindly, and dropped onto the sofa. "Any questions so far?"

"Nothing important," Max replied after taking half a minute to think things through. "Actually… I remember Ash shuddering when his absol got knocked out. Did that have anything to do with Mega Evolution?"

"Presumably," Sycamore concurred. "There is a connection between the individuals taking part in the process. It's neither draining nor invasive, but sudden shattering of it could be uncomfortable. The exact feeling differs. Malva has told me her bond feels like the comforting roar of a fireplace, and Siebold's was one of floating in water." The Professor spread his hands. "It differs from Type to Type, and probably from Pokémon to Pokémon. It'd be a safe bet yours would involve static electricity, but there are myriad possibilities."

Max nodded, accepting the explanation. There was one thing he did wonder about. "What does your bond feel like, Professor?"

"Force," came the reply after a solid minute of silence, during which Max had started to wonder if he'd gone too far in asking. "Though perhaps not. You raise excellent questions. Now, how about we put things to the test?"

Max couldn't agree more, and they walked downstairs, heading towards the greenhouse, only stopping to pick up a glass of water on the way.

No sunlight illuminated the greenhouse, but the right kind of lighting gave it that look anyway. Max tied the twine with the Mega Stone on manectric's neck, the static he felt as he did so comforting. He got a lick for his troubles afterwards before the canine took a few steps to see if it didn't fall off.

She sat down, primly, while Max took a few steps back. "I'm ready!"

"Remember. You have to be in sync. The closer you are, the easier it is."

Max took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing on who manectric was to him, and what he was to her. She was loyal, patient, caring, always ready to fight or play. When he felt down, she noticed, and she made sure he noticed her support. When she was tired or hungry or needy, he was there for her, caring for her, making sure she was in the best shape she could be. From the moment he had caught her, he had helped her improve, and she had helped him by listening to his crazy ideas, by knowing better than Max himself when he was tired.

Static erupted all over, and a burst of light penetrated his eyelids. Hoping it had worked, Max opened his eyes a sliver, wary of being blinded by the bright light.

He hadn't needed to be cautious. He saw light around manectric fade; the Mega Stone the last thing to stop glowing, and though she had stood up, nothing had happened, except for the Key Stone feeling warm against his shirt. "Wait? What happened?"

The Kalos Professor walked up, shaking his head in… marvel? "A phenomenon I have never seen, but others have told me about. This, Max, is what happens when the bond you share is strong enough, except your thoughts and feelings aren't the right ones that would trigger the Mega Evolution. How do you feel?"

Come to think of it… "Kinda tired."

Sycamore nodded. "To be expected. Everyone reported that. A working hypothesis is that the emotional resonance triggers the Mega Evolution process – the spark to light the flame – but because the synchronisation is insufficient, the Stones somehow try to use the energy of the users to force it through. It doesn't work, and it's inefficient. I'm betting the Key Stone is warm to the touch right now."

"It is," Max confirmed. "Do you want me to try again?"

A shake of the head answered him. "Two failed attempts and a fit man in his twenties said he had trouble staying awake. I don't think that's the best course of action."

He didn't feel that bad, but still, Max handed the necklace back to its owner before going over to manectric and hugging her. "We're close, girl. We'll get there. Don't worry. You're still – Hey!"

He fell to the ground as manectric jumped on top of him, intent on licking the living daylights out of him, and succeeding nicely. His shirt was wet with canine slobber when he finally got back up, and the mirth in the Professor's eyes was almost palpable. "I guess that's her way of telling _me_ not to worry?"

"You're her Trainer. You probably know better than I do."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Serena took a seat at a table for three in the Café Soleil, waiting for her friends to arrive. It may have been not too long after dinner, but the smells coming from the kitchen were tantalisingly good, and she had skipped dessert to get here. The Pokémon on top of her head, having flown there the moment she had been sent out, agreed with a soft set of chirps. "You had your food, swablu."

A disappointed "Swa" made Serena giggle. She didn't need to speak Pokémon to understand the message behind it: Serena was a cruel Trainer and swablu loved her anyway. Or something like that. The blue Pokémon adored being out with her Trainer, and Serena denying food was somewhat common.

She turned to the entrance just in time to see Sara and Louise enter. It was unmistakably them, even if some parts of them looked very different. While Serena had seen a recording of Sara's only League match, she hadn't seen Louise since the last time they exchanged pictures, which had been just before Yule. Serena remembered her as having strawberry blonde hair, but this was almost white blonde, falling down in gentle curls around her freckled face.

Sara, by contrast, didn't have too long hair after an accident with one of her Pokémon, but she was growing it out to her customary length around her shoulders. Her hair had a similar colour to Serena's own, except Sara always managed to have a slightly brighter sheen in it. A small burn scar became visible as she walked closer, a patch of discoloured skin underneath her right ear further proof of the mishap with her magmar.

"Girl, you look g-reat!" Sara said as they walked up to the table, having located her easily. "Interesting fashion in hats, but you know more about that."

"Never knew you to have a bird's nest for hair, Serena," Louise added, giggling at her own bad joke. "Sara's right. You look amazing. It's like night and day with November."

Louise pulled Serena into a hug, one Serena returned, but swablu didn't like, flying off and landing on the table. A hug with Sara followed, and all of them sat down, a waiter instantly appearing. "You've had dinner, right?"

"There's always room for dessert!" Sara stated, looking over the menu. "So many things… I need time to think about this. Louise, Serena?"

The other two girls agreed, and the waiter went back with only an order for drinks.

"So, Serena," Sara started, a glint in her eye telling Serena what was coming. "Which one is Mister Right? You sound close to that Danny. Is he good?" She smirked as Serena blushed, before suddenly breaking out into laughter. "Sorry. Just had to do that once. Wouldn't be right if I didn't. Still sad that you didn't come with us in November, but I think they've done a good job of getting you back."

"Okay," Serena said, stopping Louise from speaking. "That's the second time you two have said that. Can I get an explanation or something?"

"Girl, just think. How were you in November?" Sara said, shrugging before closing the menu and putting it on the table. Louise had done that earlier. "You were a wallflower, darling, and that's generous. You wouldn't even have dared to say anything like you just did."

"She's got a point," Louise chimed in calmly. "But never mind that. You. Won. Your. First. Showcase. Ever. How in xerneas's name did you do that? Did they help you?"

"Hey, my Pokémon and I did most of the work," Serena said angrily. Was it so hard to believe that she had come up with it on her own? First her mother, now them. "They just help with the concepts."

To her surprise, Louise looked… satisfied? "Exactly. That's almost more than what Sara does or can do for me, or the other way around sometimes. I mean, we try, but I'm just so much worse than her in battling, and she's got terrible taste for Performances. And in Poké Puffs," she added as an afterthought.

"Spices rule, and I can't help you because you don't have a Fire-type. I've got all these ideas for them, but nothing for your boring Grass and Fairy types." Sara turned to Serena. "Glad you understand fire is cool."

Serena saw Louise mouth 'hot' and nearly broke out in giggles. It felt good to be with them again. As different as they were with Pokémon – Sara was all about Fire-types thanks to her father, who had his own glassblowing business, while Louise had all calm and peaceful Pokémon like floette and oddish – they were great friends to each other and to her.

The drinks arrived, but Serena had ordered tea, meaning she couldn't drink yet on pain of a burned tongue. "Okay, maybe they do help more than you two do. Danny's got good ideas, and I can always contact Max's sister for more help. And he's got lots of experience seeing Contests, so he's always a good help in saying if it's..." What was the term Max used? "Captivating enough."

"Well, la-di-dah," Sara said. "Fancy words. Sounds like they're helping you alright. In all the good ways. I think you hit the jackpot with them. They've got my official seal of approval."

The small piece of paper she handed Serena was enough to make her completely lose it. She didn't care if others were looking at her weirdly. The logo on the paper was amazing to see.

Back before her injury, Sara had been obsessed with making sure everything was good enough for her. From lessons to food, she ranked everything, and at some point, she'd made a tiny drawing: a cartoonish girl giving a big thumbs up. A more detailed version of that was on the paper she had just been given, the words 'Sara's Seal of Approval (SSA)' written underneath. "Don't ever change, Sara," Serena choked out eventually, her voice hoarse and her sides painful. "Don't ever change."

 **~~§~~§~~**

The fact that all four of the Hoenn teenagers wanted to battle had caused Clemont to just close the Gym one afternoon, half a week after the Lumiose Conference had ended, and only six humans and a few Pokémon who took the lift up to the main arena. Max and Danny said something about the hallway between lift and arena being way better now, but since Serena had never been there, she didn't know what it had been like before. She did like the soft white-yellow lighting and the cool and weird electrical effects.

"Right," Clemont said as all of them filed in, a referee already present and waiting. "Before we get started, I have a proposition for Keith and Jane. You can go for a normal three-on-three battle with me, but you can also do something different. Like these two will be doing," he added, using his right index and middle finger to point at Serena's companions. "It's a bit different than what you may be used to, but I do think it's a great format."

"Get to the point, Clemont," his little sister, Bonnie, stated as she gently scratched the fur of the emolga in her arms. "They're probably confused now."

"I was getting to that," Clemont muttered with a glare at his sister, who didn't care in the slightest. "So, because we've battled each other before, I came up with a different idea. You see, normally I use the first Pokémon to gauge a Trainer's strength, along with the Pokédex information. But since I already know roughly what you fight like, I figured we might have a bit of fun and do two one-on-ones. No chance of one Pokémon sweeping, but also more high risk." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "So, what do you say?"

"To win, we have to win both?" Jane asked softly.

"No. Draw rules still apply," Clemont stated. "If you draw – so either win one and lose one or somehow get a double knock-out twice – it's still up to me to decide. If you win one time and then have a double knock out, you still win. If you lose and have… You get the point. It's different, but it's a lot more about battling and a lot less about thinking what I might have in store for you, with an exception."

Serena saw the natu on Max's shoulder move because the boy himself moved. "Who sends out their Pokémon first? Just both at the same time?"

"Yes and no," the Gym Leader replied with a smirk. "The first battle, yes. The second time, the winner has to send their Pokémon out first. The loser in the first match can then counter that. That's the exception, you see." He turned to the older pair. "So. What do you say?"

Keith's acceptance was visible on his face before he accepted, and Jane followed suit a moment later. The only girl was also the first one to go up.

It turned out that there was a method to who went first between Danny and Max, and Serena had been close to hitting herself for missing it. It was alternating. Keith and Jane did the same, and since Keith had been first to battle Ramos, it was Jane's turn.

And the decision between which of Jane and Danny went first had been decided by a simple coin toss that morning. Neither of them had a real preference, and Keith had suggested to let chance decide. Jane won, and chose to go first, just to get it over with.

The rest of the group took seats in the stands, fairly close down so they could see the arena clearly. Everyone seemed excited to watch the battles; even Bonnie, who probably watched a lot of battles anyway as Clemont's younger sibling.

The entire audience laughed when both of the Trainers sent out their first Pokémon. In a moment of coincidence, both of them had sent out a pikachu. Jane's was female, visible from the shape of the tail, but that was the only difference between the two. They even walked up to each other to compare – Serena couldn't see any height differences from where she was. "This is going to be fun," Danny stated, sitting directly behind Serena.

"It's not the best for Jane," Max said from Serena's left, his head swivelling between either end of the arena. Serena watched him scan everything, his mind working hard. "Assume they're close in strength. Who wins, then?"

Emolga squeaked as Bonnie twisted to Serena's right. "Clemont!"

"Because Clemont's the more experienced Trainer?" Serena said as Bonnie tried to calm the emolga, with mixed results. "Hey! Emolga!"

The sudden zap – and sorry-looking emolga – distracted Serena from the start of the battle, but both Trainers had the same idea anyway for starting out. Thunderbolts were launched, Clemont's pikachu sending his in an arc while Jane's pikachu sent hers straight along the ground.

Neither hit, because both of them moved out of the way. Jane's pikachu immediately started blurring as Double Team was used, causing Serena to lose track of the real one. "How do you follow Pokémon when they're like this?" she asked Max as multiple pikachu started circling Clemont's Pokémon, kicking up small dust clouds. "When watching, I mean."

"You watch the other Pokémon," was not an answer Serena was expecting, but before she could ask why, Max started to explain. "Double Team like this needs to have a purpose. If it doesn't have one, you're just wasting time and energy. Jane knows that." He snapped his fingers as two pikachu vanished into nothingness, popped by a quick jolt of electricity. "There."

Right on cue, Jane's pikachu slammed herself bodily into the boy pikachu. Both of them tumbled across the arena, and Serena saw both of them trying to bite, claw, and otherwise cause physical harm to their opponent. The girl seemed to land a bite first, closing her mouth on the tail, but Clemont's pikachu activated an Iron Tail in an instant, causing a hurt "Pi!" as teeth met Steel. The Gym Leader's Pokémon then used the attack to fling Jane's pikachu off, but not before a quick jolt of electricity hit him.

Jane's pikachu rolled away from the burst of electricity sent after her, getting up onto four paws, tail raised in the air. A spark appeared on it, soon growing into an Electroball, and with that on her tail, she started running towards the other pikachu.

Clemont's Pokémon tried to get out of the way, but the moment he started moving, Jane's pikachu struck, throwing a fast ball of energy that curved just right to catch a tail, an explosion following. There was a Thunderbolt sent after it, but that didn't do anything as far as Serena could see.

Then it was Clemont's turn to go on the offensive. An Agility was used, an Iron Tail slamming into Jane's Pokémon before Double Team could be used. Sparks flew, and both pikachu took some hits from the electricity, but Clemont kept it up with the Steel-type attack.

"They can't keep this up for much longer," Danny opined after a solid minute of dodging, glancing hits, and a gouge or two in the arena floor. "That Iron Tail's tiring him out, but Jane's pikachu doesn't look good. Going to be close."

Both Jane and Clemont ordered another attack, and this time, Electroball reappeared, the pikachu pumping a lot of electricity into the ball on her heart-shaped tail's end. She had to avoid two Iron Tails aimed at her head, but the third one was in the right position to be blocked tail to tail.

Two pikachu went flying as the attacks met, causing a violent explosion that kicked up dust across the entire middle of the arena. Serena looked left, where Jane's pikachu had skidded to a halt near her Trainer.. There was movement, but the small mouse gave up a moment later, knocked out.

To the right, Clemont's pikachu had suffered a similar fate. "A draw. Seems appropriate," Keith said. "What do you think Clemont's going to send out now? Something like a flaaffy?"

Serena had no idea herself, but she knew she hadn't expected the jolteon to come out to meet Jane's nuzleaf. "Oh, I know which jolteon this is!" Bonnie said. "She's only been a jolteon for like a week. Clemont wanted to keep her as an eevee for a bit longer, but she got into his Thunder Stones." She giggled. "Clemont didn't know if he wanted to tell her off or laugh."

"Why laugh?" Keith asked.

"Jolteon was acting kinda silly. Falling over her own paws and stuff like that."

"Does that mean the jolteon won't be as good with Electric attacks?" Serena asked nobody in particular, though she knew Max was probably the one who was going to answer. "I mean, it takes time to learn new attacks, right?"

"Lairon learned Earthquake on evolving. Loudred learned Hyper Voice," Danny countered as the battle started, the jolteon immediately using her speed to her advantage. "Braixen also had that, remember? With the Psychic powers?"

That had happened, Serena remembered. "Simple control, sure," Max said before Serena could speak up again. "But just that. Don't expect anything too powerful. You need practice too, and nuzleaf is good at dealing with electricity."

Serena remembered a practice battle between manectric and nuzleaf. She had thought it was going to be an easy win for manectric despite the type disadvantage, but Jane had pushed manectric really far. If it hadn't been for Fire Fang, Max would have lost that.

It looked like she was using the same strategy now. Razor Leaves from afar, and a couple of weak bursts of Extrasensory to nudge the jolteon here or there, pushing her into a bad spot. Leaf Blade was also an option for the Grass-type, but Clemont's Pokémon was keeping distance, relying on electricity and an occasional Pin Missile.

The first sign of Jane starting to win was a surprise Leech Seed – something that got an approving nod from Max, Serena noted – hitting at close range. The jolteon incinerated the plant as fast as she could, but had to suffer through a full blast of Extrasensory for it.

Jane ordered her nuzleaf back after that, playing it safe. It wasn't the most exciting match Serena had ever seen, but it was effective, and soon, the jolteon came too close again, this time copping a Leaf Blade on the nose before fleeing with a yelp. "Why was she so close? Aren't jolteon better from range?"

"Running out of juice," Max answered Keith's question without taking his eyes off the battle. "That Leech Seed burned a lot of electricity, and she's been throwing around a lot of it too."

With the help of more Razor Leaves, and a shaky Protect that looked like it wouldn't stand up to anything powerful, nuzleaf did end up winning Jane the battle and the badge. The air smelt like static already, and it had only been one round so far.

Or maybe that was the emolga lounging in Bonnie's arms.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Honoured Boss,_

 _It is true that a Phlis circuit breaker was said to be used in the shutdown of the local Holo Caster Network. Your sources are correct on that count. However, the serial number of the unit does not match any of the enhanced units we have produced and sold on the black market. It seems unlikely that one unit can shut down the entire network across 20 % of Kalos._

 _In my opinion, either the Holo Caster Network has maintenance to catch up on – unlikely for something that has been out for fifteen months – or there is a cover-up somewhere. I will endeavour to find out which it is._

 _For the Glory of Team Rocket!_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** It never made much sense to me to just be able to Mega Evolve a Pokémon once you had a Key Stone and a Mega Stone. ORAS is particularly bad at this - looking at you, Latis...


	17. Moving On

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 17: Moving On**

Keith saw Danny and Clemont shake hands after the Gym Leader had analysed the battle and Danny's performance. He had done the same for Jane's battle, and the points he mentioned made Keith realise why exactly the sixteen year old actually was a Gym Leader. He hadn't even noticed half of the things Clemont had, and Danny had looked surprised a few times as well. It was positive, but it was also critical, in all the best ways.

Clemont walked away, saying something about needing to get a few dugtrio for the arena. Keith got why: the arena had been destroyed by Grass Knots, Earthquakes, and Digs, not to mention that Alolan raichu throwing debris around with its Psychic powers. He shook his head. The fact that the raichu had been hovering in the air using its own tail as a platform had been extremely weird to see. Not as weird as the Alolan exeggutor Jane had fought – fighting a Pokémon as tall as a house was really strange – but up there. "Hey, Max, are there other Pokémon different in Alola?"

"A couple have regional variants," the youngest boy present answered as Danny and Clemont walked over. "I don't know all of them. There's rattata and raticate as Dark-types, and marowak are Fire and Ghost-typed there." Something must have shown on either Keith's or Serena's face. "Yeah, I know. There are more, but I don't remember all of them."

"Geodude, graveler, and golem are different," Clemont chimed in, a bottle of water in hand. The overall-wearing Gym Leader looked calm, but the hair on his forehead was damp. As was Danny's. It had been a long and tense battle. "Rock and Electric, if you'd believe it. I actually have a geodude from there, but she's not good enough for any of you. Maybe if you didn't have any Hoenn badges." He took a look at the arena. "I don't think you mind if I fix this first, right?"

Keith waved him on, and two dugtrio came out. "You have to do that often?" Max asked. "I mean, you probably see a lot of Ground-types, just like my Dad sees a lot of Fighting-types."

Clemont nodded in agreement, looking happy for some reason. "Yeah. Especially from beginning trainers. They think that Ground being immune to electricity means I can't fight them." He turned towards Danny. "You didn't think that, did you?"

"Eh, it did mean you couldn't _use_ electricity," Danny replied. "I thought that was a good thing."

"Even if I won round one, you would have faced raichu," Clemont shared, to Keith's surprise. "I knew he had a swampert. Korrina was kind enough to tell me last night," the Gym Leader added, looking directly at his upcoming opponent.

Keith nodded in understanding. "You do that for everyone?" he wondered.

"Sometimes," Clemont admitted. "But only for Danny and Max today. You're safe, unless you want me to call… Ramos, right?"

Keith passed on that.

Once the dugtrio had finished putting the arena back together, it was Keith's turn for a Gym Battle. He didn't have any Ground-types he wanted to use; not after onix had fallen ill that morning. It was bad timing, but it happened. He'd just have to go with two of his stronger Pokémon.

Sableye came out, the small Darkness Pokémon swiping the air twice in anticipation as the opposing Pokémon appeared.

Keith would have liked a Pokémon that couldn't fly, but magneton wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Whatever magneton tried to lead with didn't work, as sableye's Fake Out interrupted the attack before anything could happen. "Circle around, look for openings to use Night Shade," Keith ordered as his Pokémon started moving to avoid being attacked.

Silver energy gathered, but the Flash Cannon missed, sableye jumping over the sweeping beam and making a miraculous dodge of the follow-up electrical attack. 'Praise be to Detect,' Keith thought as sableye rolled forward. A Night Shade met an electric shield, and the two attacks exploded violently.

The explosion hid a purple-black aura from Clemont's view, and when magneton came into view again, Keith thought he saw a purple spot or two dance on the silvery-grey before fading. "Time to move back. Stay defensive, Clemont knows what's up."

Spite was a weird move, but it worked great to disrupt.

Magneton flew towards sableye and Keith, closing the distance with electricity crackling on all three of the magnets. The electricity it sent was weaker than normal, and almost piecemeal from just one of the magnets at a time. It probably made them easier to block, but sableye just dodged out of the way without having to use Detect. "Just a little closer..." Keith muttered. Another attack was launched. "Go sableye!"

The Ghost-Dark hybrid sank into the ground, using Shadow Sneak to move around quickly. The speed caught magneton off guard, causing three jolts of electricity to miss. They'd been sent separately, Spite's effect lingering. For a brief moment, there was nothing waiting on the magnets. "Time to burn it!"

Sableye appeared in a burst of ghostly blue flames, jumping up to the magneton's level and unleashing the attack. It slammed into the magnet pointing down, heating it. The Electric-type tried to attack in retaliation, but its attack stopped as electricity ran through the burned metal.

What worked for magnemite worked for magneton, it seemed.

Sableye got hit as he retreated, a Flash Cannon grazing his leg, but he got up again fast. "You okay? Let's try a Night Shade again!"

Magneton only used two magnets to create electricity this time, but it paid for it. The Night Shade came too close, and the explosion as volatile Ghost energy met a Thunderbolt was close enough to move magneton back a few feet. "Circle left with Shadow Sneak. Try to go for one of the other magnets this time."

The magneton tried not to fall for the same trick twice, but Keith's salbeye faked it out three times before launching the real attack. Just like that, a second magnet was too hot to use, though the first was probably almost ready to be used again. The magneton had spent a lot of electricity in trying to catch the shadow on the floor., too.

As Max had drilled into his head over the past weeks, sometimes you just had to strike instead of wait. "Get it with Shadow Claw!"

Salbeye reversed from his retreat, sprinting towards the Electric-type with claw-like purple energy appearing as he ran. It grew until it was almost as big as the small Pokémon was himself. Magneton was ready for him, forcing through a Discharge that would have hit most other Pokémon, but sableye threw up the Detect just in time. Keith would have missed it if he hadn't been looking for the green in the purple and yellow clashing.

The Shadow Claw raked magneton, who hurried back towards Clemont's half of the field. Sableye chased with the smaller but still potent attack.

Then Clemont ordered something, and while Shadow Claw hit, a red ring also appeared and hit sableye.

Magneton launched itself as high as it was allowed to go, and Keith swore under his breath as he saw the attack start to form. "Stay on the ground!" he ordered sableye, who had been preparing to jump. He needed something to ground the Zap Cannon that was going to hit, thanks to Lock-On. "Sneak a Night Shade through! Don't block!"

The attacks missed each other in mid-air, but Keith lost vision of magneton as the Zap Cannon exploded on sableye, sending him flying back at least twenty feet. Crackles nearly drowned out the landing thud, and Keith saw arcs of electricity run from Pokémon to the ground, but there was movement. "Come on… Get up..." he said, hoping his Pokémon could.

It was hesitant, but get up sableye did. The moment it happened, other movement caught Keith's eye. Red movement. The red of returning a Pokémon.

Keith returned sableye as well, thanking him for hard work, but before he could put sableye's ball back on his belt, Bonnie said "Wait!"

He turned, seeing Clemont's sister approach. "We've got Cheri Berry juice for paralysis. I can feed it to your sableye if you want me to."

Once he had handed sableye's pokéball to Bonnie, Keith selected the second Pokémon he would send into battle. He didn't have a lot of choice, but mightyena had always been there for him. The Dark-type was better than most of his team for this battle. "Let's start with Dig!"

Strangely, flaaffy didn't use an opening attack, but it did start moving around. It wasn't fast, though, and Keith knew mightyena could easily grab it whenever he wanted.

Mightyena sprang up from the ground, sending flaaffy flying just as planned, but then the sheep-like Pokémon launched a Thunderbolt while flying. It hit mightyena just before he landed on the ground, causing him to fall down as his limbs didn't want to work right. The pink Pokémon followed up with a Signal Beam, but mightyena was quick enough on his feet to avoid that. "Start zig-zagging, then Fire Fang."

Mightyena started running towards the flaaffy, dodging left, right, and right again to not get hit by a few electrical attacks. Keith noticed that the last dodge hadn't really been needed because flaaffy had already adjusted its aim left, expecting a dodge there, but that only made him smile. Danny had ruthlessly exploited that exact pattern before, and Keith hadn't been eager to fall for the same trap twice, so they taught mightyena to vary his dodges.

The black-and-grey Pokémon bit flaaffy in the wool on its head, but as he did so, a burst of Static flashed. Keith heard a pained yelp, and he saw flaaffy escape. No attack followed, and Keith saw why immediately: the wool was smoking, and flaaffy wanted to put it out first. It did that by grinding its head on the ground. It had put up an Iron Tail to deter mightyena.

"Iron Tail yourself! Use your weight!"

Mightyena put himself behind the Iron Tail, and physics did its work, sending flaaffy skidding while the Dark-type only had to adjust his footing. "Time to pounce!"

The canine obliged, jumping onto the flaaffy before it could fully recover and then attacking it with mouth, claw, and tail, intent on hitting it wherever possible, however possible. A silvery glow was sometimes visible, and flaaffy just couldn't counter while being mauled. It tried to push hits opponent off, but it wasn't strong enough for that, and mightyena wasn't giving it the time to concentrate for an electrical attack. It took another burst of unintentional static electricity, causing Keith's Pokémon to lock up again, to allow flaaffy to escape the vicious attacking. It put distance between itself and mightyena, ending up close to Keith before even turning around

Scrapes and bite marks were visible, angry red lines and a missing tuft of fur showing just how much damage Keith's Pokémon had inflicted in the scuffle. Even while standing, Keith saw it favour its left leg, a patch of skin above its right leg looking like an Iron Tail had hit it.

Mightyena was nowhere to be seen, having used Dig to escape before flaaffy retaliated. He came up closer to Clemont, immediately breaking into a run with flames in his mouth.

Flaaffy was ready. Mightyena had already pounced when it used Discharge, catching Keith's Pokémon in mid-air and sending him flailing into the pink Pokémon. The contact didn't help any, and while flaaffy crawled out from underneath Keith's Pokémon after a few seconds, breathing heavily, mightyena didn't get back up.

Discharge was really annoying if you wanted to fight up close. He'd known that before from watching Max's manectric battle, but none of his Pokémon had ever been on the receiving end of it somehow.

A tie was the final result. It wasn't the first tie he'd ever had. The first fight for his third Hoenn badge, the Iron Badge, had been a tie too. Then, he'd needed to do a rematch. He hoped he didn't have to this time.

There was a tiny ball of lead in his stomach, or it felt like it, as he walked towards the middle of the arena, meeting Clemont there. "Well, Keith," the Gym Leader said after shaking hands and thanking each other for the battle. "I appreciate it that you didn't demolish the arena as well. Just regular damage."

There were a few scorch marks around: a bigger one where Zap Cannon had exploded on sableye, and various small ones from regular attacks. Mightyena had also made a few holes digging, but while Keith had looked at the exact damage, one of Clemont's dugtrio had come out. He was just in time to see the Ground-type disappear, and subtle tremors underneath started seconds later. "That was a good battle. Both of them. I think a tie is the right outcome, and that leaves me to decide if you get a badge."

Clemont turned away from him, intensifying the weird sensations in his stomach. "Your mightyena needs more variety. None of the attacks were all that good for fighting flaaffy with their static wool, apart from Fire Fang. Having to resist muscle contractions cost you a few times, and though I can tell it is well-trained, its weaknesses need to be covered. No ability to step back and attack from range is a detriment. You walked right into the Discharge because I knew you would." A pause fell, Keith not daring to speak up because he felt Clemont wasn't done. "If I sent out flaaffy first, would you have sent another Pokémon out?"

Keith thought it over for a few seconds. He knew his team was weak to Electric-types in general: he had caught a lot of Flying-types, and staryu was his starter. "Maybe. Floette could work, but I didn't want to send her out first." A tap to his calf alerted Keith to his sableye returning, and he smiled at the healed Pokémon.

"Floette have limited coverage, and I could have used a second magneton, but it would work against a flaaffy or any ranged Electric-type. No other Pokémon?"

"Against flaaffy? onix, but she's ill. Threw up food this morning, and I wouldn't send her out first either." A second magneton would be hard, and some of the weirder rotom Formes would be too. "This format is really tricky."

"It is." Clemont turned around. "But… I'll be honest. As mismatched as that second battle was, so was the first to you. Magneton barely hit sableye. Maybe you were too eager at the end, but you didn't know it knew Zap Cannon." He looked right, at the others, before glancing down at sableye. "At least this time it didn't cause injury."

Keith had heard about Max's clefairy. "Thank you for giving him the Cheri Berry drink."

"Paralysis is pretty common, you know." Neither of them could suppress the smile at that statement. "You know, I think I'll give you a badge. You clearly know how to work around Electric-types; it's just that flaaffy was a hard counter to mightyena. Harder than I anticipated. Promise me you won't take it easy on training: you will need It to get your last two badges."

"He won't," Jane spoke up. "I'll make sure of that."

Keith wasn't sure if he liked the glint in his girlfriend's eyes, but the Voltage Badge was welcome.

A few minutes later, Keith saw Max and Clemont ready to start the last battle of the day. He wondered how strong Clemont's Pokémon would be: it was really clear he and Jane had been fighting Pokémon that weren't as strong, or as versatile. That was fine, like Max had told him earlier. Gym Leaders wanted to challenge you, and if the challengers were better, stronger Pokémon would be chosen.

The first Pokémon Max sent out confused Keith. "Bagon?" he exclaimed. "Sure, he's strong, but is he good enough for this?"

"Maybe?" Danny said, sounding not entirely convinced himself. "He hasn't had a Gym Battle since the Roxanne rematch. It's Max, though. He always has a plan ready, or he'll make one." He paused, and Keith saw his gaze go to Clemont's heliolisk. "I hope that's not the same one we saw at the Battle Chateau."

Clemont's younger sister turned around, looking up at them. "He's not. The one Clemont uses there is one of the Gym's strongest Pokémon. This is one of his own Pokémon."

Keith made a note to ask Max about that. The Gym Leader's son would be able to explain that comment more. For now, he had a battle to watch.

Bagon started like he always did, with a quick Dragon Pulse. Heliolisk didn't move out of the way until it was close, and then Clemont's Pokémon spun around, slamming his tail into the orb and batting the attack back. It was a bad bat, but just that he could surprised Keith, as did the colour of the tail. "Wait, that's Dragon Tail, isn't it? That's bad news for Max."

"If it hits bagon,' Jane said softly. "Bagon's nimble and always attacks at range. Heliolisk has to close the gap, too." Clemont's Pokémon jumped down, sending a Bulldoze at bagon. "Or make him trip."

Max's Pokémon wasn't so easily thrown off-balance, though, and he rolled with and through the Bulldoze, coming up to send a spray of embers at his opponent.

The heliolisk immediately opened its frills, using a good bit of electricity to stop the fire from hitting it. Almost too much, even. From his position in the stands, Keith saw Max ball a fist in satisfaction.

"So it has Dry Skin," Danny mused, his eyes on Clemont. "Or it could be another fake-out."

Dry Skin, Dry Skin… It took Keith a moment to remember what it did, but he didn't need to check his Pokédex for it in the end. Still… "Fake-out?"

"The heliolisk Clemont used at the Battle Chateau acted like it had Sand Veil against a dragonair," Serena explained from a row below Keith and Danny. Swablu wasn't too happy with Serena looking up, and adjusted herself. "It blocked a Water Pulse early, but later on, it absorbed the attack to recover."

An explosion interrupted Keith's thinking, and he saw bagon rush into the cloud of dust that had been created, trying to make heliolisk lose him. A Thunderbolt went into the cloud anyway, but judging by the Dragon Pulse sent low, it missed. Bagon's attack hit heliolisk's belly prompting an annoyed screech.

Heliolisk ran forward with a Dragon Tail, but Max gave an order for bagon to run back. Clemont's Pokémon followed, but he ran straight into a jet of flame.

 _Flamethrower._ Max had taught his bagon Flamethrower. Keith didn't know when that had happened; bagon certainly hadn't used it the last time he fought Keith's skarmory, but it was the perfect surprise at the perfect time.

Heliolisk's yellow lower body caught the full brunt, and the screech of pain was all the proof Keith needed for him to know that it had Dry Skin for certain. The attack even stopped heliolisk from attacking, but bagon's Dragon Rage afterwards was stopped by a wild burst of electricity as heliolisk tried to not take more damage.

It ran back, using its speed, before opening its frills and sending a stream of electricity into the air. It formed a ball, before several blasts of electricity flew down at bagon.

Bagon did a forward roll to avoid the first two, but the third and fourth blast hit, leeching some energy and returning it to heliolisk. It didn't do anything for the angry rash on heliolisk's belly hide, but any extra energy was good for it.

Another Dragon Pulse met another Dragon Tail, but this time, heliolisk put force behind the bat. Bagon barely dodged out of the way in time, and that was when heliolisk pushed a Bulldoze through. The earth carried bagon back, and made him an easy target for the follow up blast of energy. "That's a brutal 1-2-3 punch," Danny said from Keith's side. "That heliolisk has a lot of different moves, too. Dragon Tail, Bulldoze, Focus Blast…"

"That's because Clemont always teaches his Pokémon to be able to fight all Pokémon," Bonnie said proudly. "He's a Gym Leader for a reason."

"Don't count Max out yet," said the other Kalosian girl, prompting Keith to look back at the field, seeing a wide spray of embers force heliolisk to keep its distance. "Bagon can take a lot of punishment."

Keith glanced over at Max, seeing his former classmate smile widely as he ordered bagon to do something else. Whatever it was, it started with a run up in heliolisk's direction. "Why is he smiling? He's not winning."

"Because this is what he likes most," Danny replied to Bonnie's question. "The harder the fight, the more he enjoys it. And he respects Clemont. More than just a Gym Lea—whoa!"

Keith was right there with Danny. Bagon had just done… Something. It looked like a small ember, with only a narrow stream coming from the Dragon's mouth, but instead of fire, it was miniature Dragon-type energy. It was too far away for Keith to tell if it was Dragon Rage or Dragon Pulse. Whatever it was, several of the embers made it through the electricity heliolisk used to try and stop it. They impacted the Electric-type, and one arm went to the ground to support it for a moment.

Bagon didn't follow up, and Keith saw why immediately when he looked over. The bagon was breathing hard, obviously tired. Willing to fight, but tired. "Was that a mistake?"

Nobody answered as bagon jumped up into the air, launching a Flamethrower at the same time as the heliolisk tried to start a Parabolic Charge. The attacks met, exploding with enough force to send heliolisk skidding back and bagon flying back.

Heliolisk looked beat, but it was still standing. Bagon was not. "So close..."

"Close, but just not good enough," Danny agreed, cracking a knuckle and causing Keith to shiver unintentionally. "Max really likes those combination attacks."

An ampharos took the field, and Max instantly sent out his Pokémon, no hesitation. Keith suspected he would only have not sent grovyle out if it had been an emolga or something. Then again, the starter had beaten that Unovan Flying type in the Victory Tournament.

If Keith needed any more proof Max was going easy on Jane and him in spars, he got it right away, as grovyle did something it had never done to Jane's pikachu by deflecting an Electro Ball with small but powerful movements. While speeding towards ampharos in a Quick Attack.

Then, without Max saying anything, grovyle broke off its attack the instant he saw electricity spark violently, avoiding the Discharge entirely. He charged back in when the ampharos stopped attacking, but the Leaf Blade met a Thunder Punch, and hand to hand combat began.

Ampharos was bigger, but that was no problem for grovyle, who used his small size to his advantage. He wasn't darting all around the slower Pokémon like Keith was expecting, but his arms were constantly moving. A poke here. A slash there. A hew upwards. Ampharos barely kept up with parrying it all.

And grovyle's footwork was amazing. Keith saw the Grass-type shift his centre of weight around, leaning on whatever leg was better in that moment. It could be left or right, the front or back leg compared to his opponent. They weren't flashy movements, but they helped so much.

Grovyle got a Leaf Blade through at the expense of copping an Iron Tail, but he just created some distance, peppered the ampharos with some seeds, and waited for his time to go back in and strike. He was staying in one place, but the posture was so obviously ready to pounce.

Ampharos was ready for the second time grovyle came in, but the Thunder Wave only clipped grovyle for half a second. It wasn't enough to paralyse him, and it paid for the attempt as Leaf Blade hit again.

Clemont ordered a Discharge immediately, and the Grass-type scurried away, unharmed. "Grovyle's feeling up to it today," Danny observed softly, as if he didn't want to break the silence.

Another exchange of blows saw grovyle come off slightly worse as a Power Gem hit him on the retreat, but he went back in without hesitation. "Ampharos can't keep this up," Jane stated.

Keith agreed, and Clemont did too, ordering another Discharge that transitioned into a Thunderbolt trying to chase the grovyle. It was a futile attempt, but it did get Max's Pokémon far enough away that ampharos could summon a Zap Cannon. Ampharos led the shot, but with an extra burst of speed, grovyle dodged it just enough.

And then he stopped. Maybe ten feet away from ampharos.

White overtook his features.

Sceptile started moving before the evolution glow had worn off, not caring about the extra weight in his tail, or his increased height. In fact, the Leaf Blades now went for ampharos's neck and shoulders instead of his belly and hips, and they landed without fail as the Grass-type was too bloody fast to block. Every cut went deep, and every cut elicited a whimper of pain.

A Discharge was outright worked through as sceptile physically slammed his tail into ampharos, sending it skidding away and disrupting its attack. A quick grab and Mega Drain ensured that all the energy he had expended for that came right back. When ampharos tried to Power Gem sceptile away, both of his blades blades, glowing a bluish-green, went up. The Power Gem exploded in ampharos's face, and it fell to the ground.

Clemont returned it despite the ampharos still looking like it had some fight left.

"If I had known sceptile was going to evolve, I would have sent out something more difficult," Clemont told Max after the younger boy had spent a minute or two with his newly evolved Pokémon. "They were evenly matched before evolution, but after? He _played_ with ampharos. I'm not going to stick around for that."

Max looked guilty, despite Clemont looking more amused than annoyed. "Sorry about that. I didn't know he'd be this strong. I still don't know what that attack with his arms was… It looked Dragon-type, but I couldn't see clearly."

"It was," Clemont confirmed. "Speaking of Dragon-types. Why bagon? Dragon-type resilience aside, you must have had a plan for it."

"Of course he did," Danny called from the side. "He's Max."

That caused a few laughs. Keith had to agree, though. Max always seemed to have a plan or two up his sleeve, and the teenager confirmed that with a nod. "I saw you use that Dry Skin heliolisk and magneton the first times we met, and you know about my manectric and baltoy. I made a guess that you were going to use that information like you did for Danny and adjusted accordingly."

It was silent for a few seconds, but then Bonnie spoke up. "I don't understand. Why did you use bagon?"

Privately, Keith was glad Bonnie had asked the question. He was lost himself, but asking would mean admitting he was.

"Oh, I see," Clemont said, snapping his fingers. "You thought I was going to work against those two Pokémon by selecting Pokémon that were comfortable with more than electricity."

"Which you did," Max interjected.

"Which I did," Clemont agreed. "And because Dragon-type moves work on every Electric Pokémon except dedenne and some Alolan Legendary, you guessed you'd be safe." He pushed his glasses up his nose, satisfied. "Except I picked a Pokémon who knows Dragon Tail."

Max spread his hands. "It had Dry Skin, too. Sorry about the burn."

The Gym Leader waved it off. "Nothing Nurse Joy can't fix. She's seen worse from me. Anyway, Max, the Voltage Badge is yours as well. It was a tie, but only because of the format. In a regular battle, I would have lost unless I stepped it up."

"Is that an invitation for a rematch?"

"Maybe later," Clemont said, not disagreeing with the idea. "But now, I think I want ice cream. Anyone else want some?"

Anyone turned out to be everyone.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Natu Teleported Danny into wherever it was Max was. The air turned stale immediately, feeling colder than it had been, and all around, only grey concrete marked the walls, as well as a lot of dust, except for footsteps and a bit on the floor in front of him. "Where are we?" the newly grey-haired teen – since that morning, in fact – asked. "And how did you get in here in the first place?"

In response, Max led him to a crack in the concrete, and on the other side, Danny saw the outdoor restaurant they had eaten in a few nights back. Or part of the sign outside, to be precise, but it was a very recognisable and unique sign, flashy and weirdly shaped. "It's the old bunker we saw. I went snooping, found this." He fiddled with a capsule, and espurr came out, throwing up a barrier of energy. "I'm not sure if we can be overheard, but better safe than sorry."

The cloak and dagger was beginning to scare Danny. "And this couldn't happen in the Center because..."

"What if Keith walks in? You know the girls will be out shopping, but Keith might return sooner."

That explained it a tiny bit. Perhaps not enough, but Danny would let it slide. "Yeah, okay. It's just that the last time someone left me a note telling me to go somewhere..."

"Seems so long ago, doesn't it," Max replied, and Danny really wondered if now was the time for trips down memory lane. "Anyway, I think I figured out where Ash is."

Danny had noticed Ash being absent, but the seventeen-year-old had told them that he wanted a holiday. That excuse had been accepted until Max had privately told Danny that he didn't believe the holiday excuse one bit, about two weeks back, with convincing arguments. "Okay. Hit me."

"Unova." Danny didn't reply, instead making a gesture for Max to continue. "Team Plasma is being beaten back. Ash and his opponent are the only two Champion's League participants who haven't been heard of since – a few others went on holiday too, before you ask – and Karen has been vocal about her hatred of Team Plasma."

Danny saw Max's reasoning, but he wasn't sure the shorter teen standing in front of him was correct. "And just the two of them are responsible? For an entire team being pushed back?"

"The smallest change can cause a dam to break," Max recited. "And Ash is good at throwing wrenches in plans. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I'm right… I think you understand why I didn't want anyone to hear this."

That, Danny could see. Secrecy was an important part of the G-men. Ash had told them as much last year. "Right. Is that all?"

"You can go and call your parents about the new hair," Max said, correctly guessing what Danny wanted to do. "I'll come later. If Keith asks me where I am, just tell him I wanted some time alone."

Danny nodded, but he had to know one more thing. "How'd the rematch with Clemont go?" He'd been wanting to ask that when he had entered their room earlier, but Max hadn't been there, natu and the note waiting for Danny to arrive. He'd locked the door and left.

Max's eyes lit up, his entire body language turning happier. "Tied. Again. You'll get the full story tonight – Clemont's dropping by for our last day here – but it was a great battle, lots of back and forth. Really gave me something to work with."

"I'm going to lose our spars again, aren't I?" Danny half-complained, shaking his head slowly, then searching the room for natu. He found the bird staring into a corner. "Don't worry. I'll claw my way back to you."

As Danny lifted the small bird up, Max replied. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny, Max, and Serena watched as Keith and Jane entered the road that would lead them to Route 5. It had been a fun month, but it was time to go their separate paths now. "You think they'll make it to the Kalos League?" Serena wondered.

"They should," Max replied, looking up at a nearby roof. "Five months for two badges. That's a lot of time even if Keith wants to spend a month at the beach."

The three of them laughed. Keith had been salivating over spending time at the beach at some point in summer, and Jane hadn't been against it. "Enough beaches on Route 8, a Gym in Cyllage." Danny shrugged before hailing a gogoat handler. "The Route 16 gate, wasn't it?"

"No, Route 4," Serena corrected, making Danny look at her. "It's easier to reach Colomn Town from there. Mum told me this morning. Something about the forest just north of there being home to a lot of vivilion."

"Correct," the gogoat handler interrupted suddenly, taking his cap off and scratching his naturally greying hair. "Pardon my interruption, but if you want to attend the Colomn Showcase, better to go over south. The vivilion will scatter in a week and a half, but the Showcase is before that."

"How do you know we're going there for the Showcase?" Serena asked as the man led them over to one of the many gogoat pens just off the boulevard. "Isn't it a town with a lot of history?"

"Correct, but not many children your age go there for history. And my sister is part of the organisation."

That explained it, and a quiet gogoat trip later – apart from some punk nearly unseating Danny when he crossed the road in front of Danny's gogoat – they left Lumiose for the first time in about three weeks. In the distance to the south-east, they saw beautiful flower fields teeming with life and Pokémon. That wasn't where they were going. Instead, they turned more easterly soon, going off the main Route and just walking across the quiet Kalosian countryside. Fields stretched endlessly, either farmland or unowned grassy plains. Most of the crops on the farmland were just sprouting this time of year, the exceptions to the nearly empty fields being a few rare vineyards. Those were more common to the east, Danny had read at some point, but for now, they were still in Central Kalos, and off the beaten path for the first time in a long while.

It reminded him of the year before, when it had just been Max and him, and Ash for a few weeks. They didn't have to think about having to spend the night in the Pokémon Center. The weather was good, and the chill of night would be refreshing instead of cold. They'd wake up under the sun's morning rays, maybe a slight hint of fog covering the fields, and they could walk as much or as little as they wanted. It was freedom, and Danny had missed it.

Sure, they'd spent two nights under the stars with Jane and Keith, but the badlands of Route 13 just lacked something. His Dad'd know a good phrase to use for it, probably.

They stopped early, around three, because they found a nice spot with access to one of the rivers that would run through Lumiose – Danny forgot which exactly. He went to the river to get water, and by the time he returned, Max was most of the way through putting up their new tent, while Serena was busy making a fire pit with nearby rocks, while several of their Pokémon lounged in the sun nearby. Danny saw cherubi leaning against vulpix's flank, while zorua and helioptile had just taken over one of the cloths Max had pulled out of his bag. "Hey, Max. You need that?" Danny asked as he put the bottles of water down. He'd boil it later.

"Nah," the younger teen replied without looking away. "It's the old spare anyway. Last one here, baltoy."

Soft blue enveloped a peg and baltoy drove it into the ground, making sure the tent was actually stuck to the ground. "Looks pretty good. Bigger than I thought."

"Well, yeah, you weren't there when we bought it," Max replied as he stuck his head inside. "Huh. That doesn't look right. Baltoy, can you go to the back left?"

Danny watched the small Pokémon levitate to the place Max had indicated, and a moment later, a spare peg flew over the camouflage-pattern tent, baltoy positioning it so that it would tie their shelter down.

"Didn't you have a tent in Hoenn?" Serena asked, interrupting Danny's watching. "You can't have slept under open sky for eight months!"

"Two things," Max replied from inside the tent, his voice slightly muffled. "One: subtropical climate. This weather right now is standard on my birthday, temperature and all. Two: lots and lots of cliffs and rocks. Either we slept under the open sky or we just slept under one big sheet next to rock. If it rained, we had spare cloth to use. Or we got wet in the middle of the night. That happened a few times."

Danny saw Serena almost shiver. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Just pay attention to weather forecasts and common sense, and we avoided the worst of it because of that."

"But what if you get all wet and you fall ill or something?"

"With what? A cold? In the subtropics in summer? Not going to happen, Serena," Max said as he stepped out of their tent. "And even if we did get one, there are always Pokémon Centers with some berry mix medicine."

"You know," Danny said as he put a hand to his chin, thinking. "Couldn't we use espurr and baltoy to sit outside in the rain anyway? Create a dome to keep us dry?"

"Not sure if the two of them can keep one up for ten hours," Max replied. "It's light work, but that's still a long time. Could maybe do it for dinner or something..."

Danny laughed heartily, seeing Max about to lose himself in thought. "Well, you've got something to test next time it rains."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Alice flinched as another powerful attack crashed into Paul's sandslash, odd crystal-like energy slamming into her brother's starter. It wasn't looking good for him, and he was shouting loudly, urging sandslash to do more.

Bless him, the Mouse Pokémon tried, but girafarig dodged deftly around a Rollout before using its tail-head to launch an Energy Ball at the turning spiked ball. Sandslash was thrown out of his attack, flying some feet before landing hard near Alice.

She instantly saw it was over. Sandslash's eyes were blurry with pain, and though sound was blocked from inside out, she saw him whimper as he moved his left paw. The reason? A fractured claw. Probably the landing that did it.

"Unfortunately," Sabrina's voice rang through the chamber, "it seems your Pokémon is incapable of continuing. This means the match ends, four to two in my favour."

Paul was livid, his face a lot like their Da's that one time Paul had eaten half the cake that had been meant for guests that night. He returned sandslash, and would have left the room entirely if Sabrina hadn't commanded him to come to her. "When can we have a rematch? Tomorrow?"

Sabrina looked annoyed at Paul's demanding tone. "A week from now," she declared firmly. "No ifs and buts. Use that week to reflect on your shortcomings here today; there were myriad."

Alice saw the incoming explosion before it happened. "WHAT?!" Paul yelled. "I have to get to the Indigo Plateau for the League! Registration closes in five days! Just because your fucking Psychic-type—"

Her brother suddenly disappeared in a blue flash. A part of Alice felt outraged that Sabrina would just Teleport her brother out, but a larger part was somewhat happy about it, to her shame. She'd heard him say that he needed to win this Gym Battle five times in the last two days, and it had started to get on her nerves. "Where's Paul gone?" she asked the Gym Leader.

Sabrina turned her gaze on Alice, and for a moment, fear overtook the teenager. She couldn't explain why, or even guess, and as soon as she felt it, it vanished. "The entrance to the Gym," Sabrina stated calmly, inclining her head just a tiny bit. "One of my apprentices will explain to him that he needs to leave."

"'n if Paul ignores that?"

"Then he will be doing the chicken dance all the way to the Pokémon Center. Nobody in the Saffron Gym has time or patience to suffer entitled fools."

The urge to defend her brother warred with the desire to see him actually do the chicken dance – something _childish_ which Alice knew he would hate. Neither really won. "I, uh, I'm sorry 'bout what he said."

Alice stopped speaking because she didn't have anything more to say, but a soft pressure locked her jaw in place at the same time, and Sabrina walked up, her eyes glowing. "Girl, never apologise for what someone else says or does. You are responsible only for you and your Pokémon, not for brothers. He..." The pressure faded, and a far-away look came over the green-haired woman's face. "You should go," she said softly, snapping her fingers once. An alakazam appeared. "A choice awaits you. Beware the illusion of strength; it hides excesses that should not be shrouded, and beware the illusion of certainty; it is the refuge of the weak."

Without warning, the Psychic-type Teleported her out, leaving her two streets away from the Gym, in one of Saffron's main avenues. It was pretty calm, the weather grey and cold for the time of year. Alice saw Paul stomp away in the direction of the Center, about a hundred feet in front of her.

As much as she tried, he just walked faster. She finally caught up with him after he had dropped his four Pokémon off at Nurse Joy. "Come," her brother barked. "Let's go pack. We're going to Vermillion."

"No!" Alice bit out immediately. "I've a Contest in two days. I'm not leaving!"

"We are," Paul said as he grabbed her wrist, gently despite his anger. "This is better for us, sis. You're out together, you work together, remember?"

Alice twisted her wrist out of her brother's grip with a sudden lurch up and right. "Tha's not what Da's sayin' means, doofus. 'n just because y'lost today doesn't mean y've to go back to Hoenn. Badges count for two cycles."

Instantly, Alice knew she'd hit a nerve. Paul's face darkened, and he took a step forward, looming over her. "I lost to stupid Psychics. They should be banned, just like Ghosts and Darks. Dangerous Pokémon, the lot of them," he said in an urgent but soft voice. "You were there. You saw them ruining my chances for the Indigo League."

Alice took a few steps back, noticing a returned Nurse Joy looking at them weirdly. "I saw Sabrina winnin' 'cause she read yer Pokémon like Da reads the weather. It wasn't close. Losin' sucks, but grow up, Paul."

"That's enough!" Nurse Joy said as Paul breathed in deep. "You, mister, need to cool down before I make you. And you, young lady, stop provoking your brother. How would you like it if he taunted you when you lost. Now, out of my lobby before I make you."

Paul went to their rooms, and Alice went back outside, both of them fuming. Alice couldn't get past Nurse Joy being so bloody rude about everything. Hadn't she seen that Paul had threatened her? She'd just assumed both of them were at fault because they were fighting.

Twenty minutes and an impulse buy on some chocolate soft serve ice cream later, Alice had calmed down somewhat. Sure, she was still angry with Paul, but she knew he was just annoyed that he had lost. He had probably calmed down by now. When she saw him standing outside the Pokémon Center, looking for her, she knew she had been right. "Alice. Good to see ya. Da called. One o' the farmhands broke a leg 'n he doesn't have enough money to hire a new one. He needs us back home."

"Can't it wait two days?" Alice asked as they walked back inside, earning a momentary cold look from Nurse Joy. "Still got my Contest."

"Sweetcorn doesn't wait, 'n the boat goes in three days, then not for a week. C'mon, let's go pack."

Half an hour later, Alice was done packing, while Paul was still stuffing clothing in his pack. To pass the time, she decided to see if Paul's Pokémon had been healed already. He would need them, and the faster they could leave, the more chance there was for actually making it to Vermillion in time.

It felt bad to miss out on the Kanto Grand festival, but Ribbons were valid for two cycles as well.

She left their room and went to Nurse Joy. "Excuse me? Are my brother's Pokémon healed yet?"

"They are," Nurse Joy replied coolly, still sour about the argument earlier. "I thought you were staying until after the Contest?"

"Paul got a call, sayin' our Da needed us home," Alice explained as she took the tray. "He's a farmer, 'n one of the farmhands broke a leg."

The pink-haired woman smiled gently, despite her annoyance. "It's good of you to help your family like that. Was he called on his Pokénav?"

Alice shook her head. "Naw. His broke like two weeks back. Must've been on the videophone." She turned around, wondering what was keeping her brother."

"There haven't been any incoming calls since I started my shift."

Alice turned around, back to Nurse Joy. "Huh?"

"Your brother can't have been called. There haven't been any incoming calls in the last seven hours."

"But he seemed so… cer… tain..."

" _Beware the illusion of certainty."_ Sabrina's words echoed in Alice's mind, loud as if the Gym Leader was standing next to her. Was it a lie? Why?

"Ah, thanks sis," Paul said as he strode into the lobby, taking the tray and putting the capsules on his belt while Alice was still stunned. "What's the matter? Had a Contest idea?"

"How did Da call?" Alice asked softly, looking up into her brother's eyes.

The reply was instant, certain. "Videophone. Now, let's go. Daylight's wastin'."

Alice didn't move. "Nurse Joy says Da didn't call. There weren't any calls incomin'."

"She must have missed it," Paul said with a shrug. A pot rattled in his pack.

"I have been here the entire time since your argument earlier," the nurse interjected, her voice downright cold. "You did not receive a call on the videophone. You went back to the C-Wing rooms, coming back out ten minutes later and exiting the Center to wait out in front."

"It doesn't matter. We're still leaving," Paul said, grabbing Alice's wrist lightly. "C'mon sis."

"No." For the second time in less than an hour, Alice twisted her wrist out of Paul's grasp. "You're lyin'!"

Quick as a flash, Alice saw Paul's anger reappear, and she took a step back instinctively. "You will come with me," he ordered. "I'm your brother. I'm looking out for you. I know what's best for you."

"You do not," said Nurse Joy when Alice didn't respond, indecision paralysing her. "It seems to me that you're trying to coerce your sister into something she doesn't want to do. I don't know the reason, or how your family works, but if she doesn't want to leave, then she is more than welcome to stay." A tap on her shoulder made Alice look up, showing that the nurse had come out from behind the desk. "Do you want to stay?"

Alice didn't really know what to do. She wanted to stay in Kanto, go to the Grand Festival, be here with the nicer weather than Hoenn. She was having fun with her Pokémon when Paul wasn't driving them to walk tons in one day. But… Paul was her brother, her twin, and family was important. She'd never gone anywhere without him on the road. Could she even do it?

"I'm stayin'."

Paul made to reply, but his opened mouth froze as Alice felt the adult take a step forward. She glanced up, seeing a furious face. "You heard her. She is staying. You are not. Get out of my Center before I make you."

Perhaps it was Nurse Joy's anger, or the Pokémon she had sent out – a fearsome arcanine – but Paul left without another word.

For the first time, Alice was alone on her journey.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Three or four days prior. Long enough for panic to sink in, short enough for chaos to influence people. Show them that the government cannot protect the people, and they shall flock to those who pledge to._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And back after an unfortunate schedule slip last week, with another rather long chapter. My apologies for said slip, but between several days that left me no time to write or edit and both the bunker scene and the Saffron scene being a pain in the proverbial rear end... It happened, and I hope it won't happen again.

This chapter also marks the one year anniversary (minus a day) of this saga. Ah, how time passes.


	18. Required Interventions

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 18: Required Intervention**

The fighting was slowing down, Ash noticed as he looked away from where charizard and weavile were trying to control a hydreigon. He'd already had to return sceptile and croconaw, while heracross was his bodyguard. His sixth Pokémon was swellow, but Ash was keeping the Flying-type in reserve in case of emergency. So far, it hadn't looked like he'd be needing to use him.

Something tickled at the back of his mind, warning him. He ducked on instinct, feeling heracross do the same beside him. Weavile took a few steps left as well, giving Ash unhindered vision of the hydreigon, and it of him.

Pink energy barely skimmed over Ash and heracross, the Moonblast orb close enough that he felt the Fairy-type energy prickle and tingle on the back of his neck. One of hydreigon's heads tried to stop it, but weavile and charizard kept the other two busy, and one Flamethrower wasn't enough.

A gardevoir floated beside him as he got up, its trainer standing right next to the Psychic-type. "That should suffice," said the Unovan Elite Four member. "So uncouth a Pokémon, as befits the vermin that heads Team Plasma."

"Thanks Caitlin," Ash stated as Dragonbreath and Icy Wind blew up on the fallen opponent. "The rest going okay?"

"This is the climax, and as befits our role, we are winning," said the other female Elite Four member, and Ash barely resisted the urge to jump. "Put more plainly, yes. Most of the grunts tried to mass in a flank, but we were forewarned. The Gym Leaders are doing mop-up. Caitlin foresaw us being more needed here, and so we came."

Ash didn't want to make sense of Psychic powers right now. "Charizard, stop that man!" he ordered as the hydreigon went back to its trainer, a tall man with grey hair and some weird device over his eye. He wore fully black clothing, but that didn't help him in the broad daylight.

The Fire-type obeyed, even grabbing him and flying him high up into the air. Fierce struggling stopped as the man realised he'd fall to his death from up there, but he resumed when charizard brought him down to Ash, Caitlin, and Shauntal. "If it isn't Ghetsis," Shauntal stated in a fake-cheery voice. "The Plasma number two. The power behind the throne. Tell us. Where is your King?"

To Ash's surprise, Ghetsis started laughing like he'd lost his mind. "My King?" he wheezed out, uncaring of the angry growl charizard let out. "After all this time, you still haven't figured it out? Such fools you are." Another bout of laughter was stopped by charizard accidentally-on-purpose squeezing a bit harder.

"What are you blathering about?" Caitlin asked as her gardevoir contemptuously blasted a liepard into the distance. Flames engulfed a Pokémon to their right as well, the culprit invisible. "We are aware he has been hidden for his safety for about a month. As his second in command, you are most likely to have knowledge of where he is."

"Second in command? Oh, reshiram, how was I beaten by these incompetents?" Ghetsis cried to the heavens. "Listen, fools. N was a mere puppet, and he fled the moment the scales started tipping in your favour. He saved you in doing so, as he took the Light Stone with him. If he had not, reshiram would have returned from his slumber and laid waste to this decadent world."

"What-ifs and might-have-beens do you no good," Shauntal remarked as her chandelure appeared above them. "I have heard enough. Let's put you where you belong."

Around them, the battle had died down as Plasma grunts realised their leader had been captured. An occasional attack flew up into the sky, but those were far off, and as charizard, Caitlin, and Ghetsis left, Karen rejoined them. She hadn't come off unscathed: the tips of her long hair were black instead of blonde, and she was cradling her arm. "Well, damn. You came through unscathed. I thought that plan was not going to work, but turns out I was wrong."

"Not completely unscathed," Ash corrected, scratching his hatless head. A Whirlwind had caught it, and it was probably incinerated by now. "He wasn't that strong. Just annoying. I fought worse."

"Speaking of worse to fight," Shauntal interjected as she pointed ahead, slightly left. "Now he shows up. Aaaand he's seen us."

The Unova Champion cut an imposing figure. Wearing the clothing he apparently always did, his bouffalant by his side, Alder strode toward them with determined steps, his face thunderous as soon as he noticed the three of them. The pokéball necklace swayed with each step. "I ordered non-interference," he barked as soon as he stepped into hearing range. "It was for the people of Unova to decide to rise up, not us. Shauntal, explain yourself."

"You incompetent piece of asshair," Karen spat before the Elite Four member could reply, drawing the attention of both Champion and his Pokémon. "When people lose their Pokémon, they lose their ability to rise up, and that's not even thinking of most people whose Pokémon aren't good enough _to_ battle any longer. It is the duty of the strong to exercise their power in order to protect the weak, and so it has always been until you shat on that."

"It is my prerogative to decide Unova's path, Ms. Peterson," Alder replied coolly. "This is how our ancestors envisioned it, and so I have been a Champion for over a dozen years, letting Unovans live as they desire without interference. This hardship would have been overcome in due time, as others have been."

"This is not some abstract situation that you can just hide from in your secluded abode, _Alder._ Do you even know how many Pokémon were liberated just in the past week? I do. Seven thousand," Karen said, almost hissing the last words. "Seven thousand live Pokémon. The dead and missing number double that. You are hopelessly out of touch. Perhaps it is time for a new Champion."

"Are you challenging me, Ms. Peterson?" Alder wondered, bouffalant pawing the ground twice. "That can be arranged. Here and now, if you wish. We will see whose truth is worth speaking."

Karen seemed to muster all the arrogance she had. "Perhaps later. I am undecided. Some of us did actually do something today. Now, if you're quite done, there is a lot still to do. Perhaps you can help now."

With that, Karen left. It wasn't until the next day that Ash found out why she had been smiling as she did so, but as a hidden recording of the conversation aired, protests around Unova started to appear, calling for Alder to resign.

 **~~§~~§~~**

It was the first of June, a beautiful day outside, but a couple of hundred people spent one of the first days of summer inside, watching or participating in the Colomn Showcase.

Unlike the previous two Showcases, Serena wasn't nervous about the first round at all. Not after she had found out it was a Pokémon Quiz. If there was one thing she felt comfortable doing, it was answering questions about Pokémon.

It was strange to say the least, but after spending five months with Danny and Max, and the crazy levels of knowledge they had… She'd picked a lot up, and not even being on stage wearing too-heavy graduation robes could throw her off balance. She had even lucked out with the quiz format: Serena and her two competitors just had to have their Pokémon retrieve a small bauble from a piece of rock. Others – like Shauna – would need to fill baskets with Barries, or complete a memorisation game, but this was the simplest option.

"Ze first question. The Legendary Pokémon yveltal has two Types. Flying and?"

Zorua, a sandslash, and a timburr all shot off to the rocks at the other end of the podium. Sandslash was there first as it rolled faster than zorua sprinted, but Serena's small Pokémon could attack the moment he got past the line on the floor. Both Pokémon broke the rock at the same time, with claw and Shadow Ball, but now, sandslash couldn't roll back, and even the timburr overtook it before finishing.

Serena was still first. "It's a Dark-type," she said, thinking back to the book she had given Max for his birthday.

"What method of evolution is needed to evolve your sneasel into weavile?"

Zorua was a tiny bit slower than timburr this time, but her opponent guessed a Dusk Stone, which Serena knew to be false. It was a hard question, and she wasn't completely sure herself. "Give sneasel a Razor… Claw. At night."

The last question was the easiest, and with a triumphant "Emolga!" as her answer to Monsieur Pierre asking about which Pokémon were both Electric and Flying-type, Serena scored a perfect three out of three, granting her a place in the Freestyle Performance, a big round of applause, and lots of congratulations from the other girls for being so confident on the stage.

Shauna also barely made it to the next round. The group she was in needed eight questions to be decided; nobody knew exactly which Pokémon was also called the Beckon Pokémon and so that question had to be skipped. Serena had to giggle when the answer turned out to be dusclops.

Shauna was up first in the Freestyle Performance, while Serena was fourth out of six. The other Vaniville Performer did a dance routine with ivysaur and gothita. It was energetic, and the kind that Serena would like to do, but couldn't due to her knee. It was also pretty daring, with gothita lifting her trainer up into the air multiple times. She finished with a forward flip into a deep bow, earning a solid round of applause.

Serena paid no attention to the two Performers following Shauna, as she got ready for her own show. She triple-checked if her clothing was done properly – it was – and if her hair wasn't escaping from the ponytail she had put it in – it didn't.

Clad in comfortable period clothing from about a century back, Serena took the stage. Swablu flew beside her, while zorua sneaked in behind her, camouflaged against the bright light.

She bowed once to the audience as the lights dimmed, though Serena was still plenty visible. Then she turned around to find zorua's illusion looming over her. She gasped; the surprise and horror coming easier than the Performer expected.

The illusion wasn't like any Pokémon she'd ever seen. Pitch black, bloody crimson, and sickly green mingled in a vaguely canine-shaped face, the eyes as large as her fist, piercing through her. Something dripped from its mouth, and one fang was bared. It didn't appear to have a snout, and the ears were spiked, the inner parts so dark they seemed to suck the light in.

Swablu flew forward, chirping loudly at the threat to her Trainer. A ghostly claw came up, swiping at the small blue Pokémon, but she dodged it by dipping low, then the second was avoided by flying up. The third swipe didn't go for swablu, but for Serena, and she fell to her knees, one hand and one elbow on the ground. "S… Save me..." she croaked out. "Soothe it..."

And swablu sang.

Serena couldn't look anywhere but straight ahead at the podium floor – she had a role to play – but swablu's song washed over her. The modified lullaby was done just right: enough to calm like a mother's song would soothe a child, but nothing more than that. The melody was good too, even if the idea for using the melody from a children's song had only come to her last weekend.

And as she listened and watched, she saw the illusory shadow retreat. The eerie green went first, making the rest of the illusion harder to see as contrast faded. Then the red hue vanished from her sight, and finally, the black went away, replaced by steadily increasing light on the podium itself.

She looked back up, shakily getting back onto her feet. Swablu was had stopped singing, but was still flying around, circling over a resting zorua, the Pokémon curled up in his favourite position.

Serena picked him up, turning to the audience and moving onto the podium's edge, a spotlight shining down on her. Zorua perked his head up from her arms, and swablu landed on her shoulder.

Serena bowed, and thunderous applause rocked the theatre.

There were two more Performers to follow, but Serena felt like they weren't good enough to beat her or Shauna. The dance moves of the girl after her had looked a bit off to her – she _had_ spent a lot of time dancing when she was younger after all – and the last one in line did a daring ice sculpture routine that went wrong when the glalie froze part of her own dress. That could have been okay, but not noticing it and ripping the dress? Not good enough.

The voting process was as nerve-racking as the first time she'd been on the podium at the end. She was able to follow how much of the vote she received this time; the red easy to follow. It looked like about one in four to one in three. That could be enough.

"And ze winner is… Oh, and by so few votes too..." Monsieur Pierre said as voting had ended, leaving a pause to keep everyone in suspense. "Shauna, from Vaniville!"

A scream of happiness came from her right, even as Serena felt the bottom fall out of her stomach a tiny bit. Still, at least Shauna had won – it was good and the winner was someone Serena knew, so that was fine.

Ten minutes later, backstage, the bottom fully fell out of her stomach.

 _Four_ votes? She'd lost by _four_ votes? After that perfectly executed Performance, she'd lost by four?

Serena congratulated Shauna one more time before leaving the dressing room, but instead of going right twice to head back up to the foyer, she went right and then left, leading her to a corridor that came out behind the podium curtains. There, she sat down, trying to think about what had gone wrong.

Danny was the one who found her, some time later. People had walked around her as they put the building back to normal, but nobody had talked to her; not even when someone had come through with a vacuum. They left her alone, and Serena had liked that just fine. She wanted to be alone. "You here to tell me to come back?"

Danny held out his hands in the gesture for 'I come in peace', stopping a few steps short of her. Serena glanced a look at his face, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking. The dim lighting didn't help. "No need to go anywhere you don't want," he said, speaking softly and calmly. "I'm guessing you're bummed out?"

"Losing by four votes…" Serena couldn't help the whine that crept into her voice. "And everything was perfect in my Performance, too." She sighed, tapping her heel on the crate she was sitting on. "It just..."

"Stinks?" Danny finished for her as he leant against a nearby wall, further hiding his face from her. "Look on the bright side. It was your third Showcase, and you got first or second in two of them. That's good, right?"

Danny's words caused some anger to bubble up. "Not good enough," Serena bit out, but she immediately felt bad. "Sorry. It's just… I don't know where I could have improved today."

"Maybe Shauna just had a better Performance? It's a competition," Danny said, "and you're not just relying on yourself. Your competitors are a factor too, y'know."

Serena didn't follow. "Huh?"

"Think of it like this," Danny started as he walked back into the dim lighting. "You train and practice, right? You try to get everything just right, make sure you and your Pokémon know what to do when. You can control that." He paused, giving her time to understand. She nodded when she thought she did. "You can't do that for others. This isn't like a battle or a Contest where your opponents make mistakes because you make them do that. And sometimes that means you did everything right, but someone else did everything righter. And then you don't win."

"But aren't you and Max always going on about where you could improve after your spars? Or when you fight with me?" Serena asked. "You always know something-or-other that's not good enough."

"Do you want my ideas about it or Max's?"

That question took Serena off-guard a tiny bit. "Both? Yours first?"

"I think the important thing is that it's _against_ each other, not _alongside,"_ Danny said, emphasising and using air quotes for the two words. "It's a competition, but the Freestyle Performance is more parallel instead of against each other. You do your thing, they do theirs, and the audience decides."

Okay. That made sense to her. A lot, even, come to think of it. She thought. "And Max?"

Serena expected an impression, and she wasn't disappointed. "There's always something you can improve in a battle, however small," Danny said, imitating Max at his know-it-all best. The deeper voice ruined it a bit. "Always look for that and try to fix it."

That did sound like Max. "I think I like yours better," Serena admitted. "For Showcases. It might be different for Contests."

"You'd have to ask Max or May," Danny told her with a shrug, and then his stomach rumbled, Serena's hearing just good enough. It made her realise her own stomach was pretty empty as well. "You heard that?"

Serena nodded, standing up. "Yeah. C'mon, I think there's a snack machine here somewhere..."

There was, and the chocolate was great at helping clear her worries, but Serena knew Danny had already done most of that. Not for the first time, she felt lucky that the Professor had pushed her to go with them. It just worked.

 **~~§~~§~~**

For the first time in literal years, Max found that he, and the others with him, was lost. It had been way too common with Ash – in part because ten year old him wasn't the best at reading maps and in part because Ash's sense of direction was terrible – but up until now, it just hadn't happened on his own journey.

Okay, it had helped that they had skipped the really dense woods like Petalburg Woods, or the Santalune Forest. What he hadn't known was that the forest north of Colomn had been that dense as well. It was the fastest way on the way to their next destination, but Max was coming around to that old saying of short cuts making for long delays.

To make matters worse, he _felt_ the air turn heavy and oppressive with static. A glance upwards through the dense leaves gave him just enough information to make it look likely. "Well shit. Ninjask," Max said before either of the others could respond, "can you look if there's anything to hide in nearby?"

Ninjask flew up, rustling leaves announcing his departure, and Max turned to his friends. Serena looked a bit confused, but Danny wasn't. "How long do you think we have?"

Max shook his head. "No idea. In Hoenn, I'd say half an hour, but this isn't Hoenn."

"Can't you just send out manectric?" Serena asked, surprising Max in that she knew what they were talking about. "Like you did with electrike when you got your clefairy?"

"It's not the lightning itself I'm worried about," Max told her before glancing upwards and seeing no ninjask just yet. "It's lightning hitting the trees."

"Huh?"

A rustle announced ninjask coming back down as Danny spoke up. "If lightning hits nearby trees, it can blast branches off. Maybe even fell a tree if it's powerful."

Ninjask zipped around excitedly as he came to Max's level, the reaction telling the teenager that yes, there was something nearby better than any words could. It made sense the Flying-type wanted to be safe when the thunderstorm hit.

It was about ten minutes of walking – and a tiny bit of crossing a dry creek bed that Danny had swampert help with – until they found what ninjask had seen. In a perfectly circular clearing in the forest stood an old house, looking at least a century old. It wasn't quite a mansion, but it looked bigger than the Petalburg Gym and the adjacent house together.

It also looked very abandoned, ivy covering parts of the outer wall, and Serena was very hesitant upon seeing it. "That place gives me the creeps. Could it be haunted?"

Danny looked at Serena as if she was crazy. "If it is, dusclops has work to do. And zorua."

At that moment, thunder rumbled overhead, low, slow, but close. That seemed to convince even Serena, and they walked over to the front door. Max's mind was on another time this had happened, where the house had turned out to be haunted. Sort of.

Somehow he didn't think telling Serena that was a good idea.

The door opening of its own accord really didn't help with the being haunted idea, but another clap of thunder – with visible flash of lightning accompanying it – prodded everyone inside into a spacious and decently lighted entrance hall. Dust lay everywhere on the carpeted floor, while at least two of the paintings nearby were missing part of their frames.

A torch flickering on the walls made Serena squeal. "It is haunted!"

Max restrained himself from rolling his eyes where Serena could see, while Danny sent out dusclops. A Foresight revealed nothing, but torches hardly sparked to life on their own. "Let's see if there's a room with something to sit on. It looks like..." Thunder interrupted him. "It looks like we'll be staying here for a bit."

Max definitely heard Serena grumble about that, but she didn't protest as dusclops and Danny led them deeper into the mansion. The first side-door they checked was a dead end, leading to a cloakroom, but the second was the kitchen. More importantly, the dining room was visible to their left, and a dining room usually had chairs and tables.

The door to the kitchen closed behind them with a bang, thunder lighting up the room at the same time. Serena jumped, dusclops scanned the room once more to no avail, and Max ignored it to look for stuff they could use apart from the chairs and the dining table. "Those look sturdy," Danny said as he walked over, lifting an old high-backed chair from the ground. "Feels the right weight too. Hey, Max, send bagon out."

Max obliged, curious what Danny had planned. That was revealed a moment later, when Danny told the Dragon-type to sit down in the chair. It creaked ominously, but didn't break. "Safe for you, Serena. Go take a seat."

Danny's plan became fully clear when he had bagon test the other chairs as well. The third one he checked actually crumbled under the weight, but because bagon was small and a Dragon-type, the splinters did absolutely nothing except annoy him. "Good thinking," Max said as he rifled through one of the chests of drawers lining the side of the room. Cutlery wasn't useful, and the cloth had holes in its holes, but in the bottom drawer, he found what he was looking for. "Can you get the stumps out of the candlesticks?" he asked nobody in particular.

Five minutes later, several candles provided a little light in the darkening room; the thunderstorm turning worse by the moment. Braixen had lit the candles, while dusclops had retreated to a corner. The three humans sat at the dining table, not saying anything, just waiting for the rain and thunder to stop.

Oh, and the candles flickered despite a lack of wind. Max was pretty certain about that – the windows were on the north-west or something, and the wind had come from the east all day. Serena looked very ill at ease, even if braixen duly relit every candle.

The smell of extinguished wicks was foul, too.

Max sighed. Maybe it was stupid, but he'd really rather not have to smell that for however long, or have to deal with an increasingly scared Serena. "Oi, hiding Ghost-type. We're just here for shelter from the storm," he said to thin air. He knew Danny was giving him a weird look – he always did. "And it'd be great if you..."

He trailed off, a shard of memory coming to him. Ghosts were pranksters, usually, but they were also fairly social Pokémon. "Actually, it'd be great if you could show yourself. It's probably lonely here, and we've got Pokémon you can talk to if you want."

Max turned back to Danny to see the older teen look at him as if he was crazy. "Really, Max? Y'think that's gonna… work..."

Judging by Danny's face falling almost comically at the last two words and the sudden ghostly chill near his shoulder, it had actually worked. Steeling himself, Max turned his head left, wondering which Pokémon it was.

It wasn't one he immediately recognised on sight, but there was something instantly recognisable about the Pokémon anyway. "Hello rotom," Max greeted the Ghost-type. This version was orange and yellow, and it looked a lot like a fan. "You've not got any friends?" Rotom swerved from side to side, the blades blowing air over Max's cheeks. "All alone here? That must be lonely."

The rotom shrugged as best it could before flying over to Serena, who recoiled a tiny bit before visibly steeling herself. "Hi rotom," she said, Max not noticing any hesitation in her voice. "Have you lived here for long?" The question was answered by another swerve, Serena's hat shifting just a bit on her head. "Just here for a short time, then?"

As rotom nodded, Danny leant over to Max. "A nomadic rotom. Now that's something new," he whispered, and Max smiled at the idea. "And I still can't believe it worked."

Max just shrugged. Sometimes, you just needed to gamble. They were able to ride out the storm and eat dinner in the manor, and surprisingly, it was Serena who spent most time with the Fan rotom, to the point of even asking if it wanted to come with her. Oh, how a little contact had changed everything in the span of not even thirty minutes.

Sadly, rotom didn't want to. join her.

 **~~§~~§~~**

James was happy his visit to the Parfum Palace had ended, for more than one reason. He had convinced the eccentric owner that their brand of automatic security would be a valuable addition to the palace's defences – using his knowledge of being the one breaking and entering to point out vulnerable spots. The recent Team Flare activity also helped his cause, though he hadn't seen anything that'd catch their attention. Monetary value only went so far, and Flare seemed to prefer Pokémon-related heists.

The other reason for him being glad was that the owner was the worst kind of aristocrat; the kind that he had run away from for a reason. He needed to recharge, but in the car kindly provided by the owner – one that'd bring him back to the Camphrier Hotel – he couldn't kick back. Reputation was everything to old money, and anything he did here would make its way back to the palace. And so James grit his teeth as the driver took his sweet time travelling back, taking routes he knew to be suboptimal.

Such a waste of time. If someone was not astute enough to recognise that they were always being watched, then they were fools in the first place.

It was just past seven when James walked back into the hotel, and although the smell of dinner was enticing, he was of a mind to clean up first. He went up to the third floor and the large suite he had been occupying for the past two days. It was far too opulent for his tastes, but again, walk the walk and talk the talk were key concepts in dealing with the rich. At least it was off in a corner of the building, allowing for some privacy.

A foreboding feeling crept up on the nominal CEO as he fiddled with the key to his hotel room. Something felt off, like a trap about to be sprung or a pikachu about to unleash electricity. He paused, asking his Mime Jr. if there was something malicious inside, but either there wasn't or the thing inside was capable of hidings its intentions.

He needn't have worried that much. Lounging on the luxurious chaise longue was one of the Rocket operatives that had infiltrated the region over the past few months. The jet-black hair framing her pale face gave James enough information as to who it was. "Diane. A surprise to see you here." The spy made to rise, but a wave of his hand was enough to stop that. "Your mission was successful, then?"

"More than you can imagine," the Johto-born woman said, her native accent thick in the unguarded moment. Or perhaps she preferred to do it like this, James mused. Vocal manipulation was one of her strong points. "I happened to intercept a message from one of the Scientists. There is to be a Mega Stone exhibition starting at the end of this month. Durocor City is the location."

"It is too enticing a target..." James muttered as he sat down, two fingers on his left temple. "What are they thinking? Is it a trap?"

"No," said a deep voice from behind him, and James couldn't resist jumping up. The stoic man standing behind him, tanned despite summer being two weeks off still, had stepped out from… Somewhere. Presumably the minibar. "Police protection is slated to be normal. No special forces have been requested."

Not for the first time, James wished Team Flare didn't exist. It'd be easier for Team Rocket. "Do we even know what they want with the Mega Stones? It's not the first time they've gone after them."

Diane shook her head. "Apart from bolstering their own forces, there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to it." Left unsaid was the assumption that Team Flare wanted more than that. Diane had observed – and James had agreed – that simple Mega Evolution for added strength was too mundane for them. "There is more, though."

The executive of Phlis Co. rolled his eyes. "Of course there is. You wouldn't visit me in person if you could help it."

"We have strong indication that the Holo Caster is compromised somewhere. Nothing conclusive, but it's happened one too many times now."

That explained their visit here instead of a call. James felt a headache coming up. "Draft an order for all operatives to report via letter and Psychic transportation," he told Diane, who nodded. "Is that all?"

Both shook their head, apart from Aaron handing him an envelope from Jessie. They Teleported out with the help of a xatu – an initiate had brought it into the organisation, and it had made transportation a lot easier, within reason.

It took James a few minutes to find the right cipher to use, but decoding was easy afterwards.

 _Littlest twerp spotted heading for Aurem. Remains unaware of our presence. Involvement in Coumarine incident confirmed._

Short and to the point, and James burnt the note afterwards. Habit told him to keep an eye on those twerps, for reasons of not wanting their plans ruined, but the continued obliviousness spoke in their favour.

It was in the shower that James had another idea. That could bear investigating. He called for dinner to be sent up, and spread a map out on the coffee table. Perhaps there was a way to keep the twerp pointed in another direction…

 **~~§~~§~~**

The beat of electronic music faded as May exited the tent on the Slateport Beach, a Barrier blocking the sound so it didn't get blasted all across town. Her face was flushed, and the fresh warm air – it was nearly summer in Hoenn and that meant warm weather, even close to eleven at night – did only a little to cool her down. People milled around, chatting eagerly, drinking, eating, enjoying the start of summer festival. Pokémon of all types freely mingled and provided ambience. May had seen more than one lampent provide light, while a few Water-types provided full-body cooling down on the fringes. She didn't have any Pokémon out herself, but most of the ones she had on her were too big or too small, or not appropriate.

She entered the line for some overpriced water, adjusting a sweaty bandana and trying not to smell the people around. It was a small price to pay for having this much fun; she honestly didn't remember when the last time was that she was able to just enjoy life and party. Maybe it had been never. It certainly hadn't been while she was travelling with Ash: Max had been far too young for anything like this, not that her brother would deign to come near this kind of music. The snob, and she meant that fondly, liked his boring classical music too much.

There was other stuff too. May remembered one tent being set apart for poetry of all things, and another had politics, but she stayed far away from those tents. Max's best friend would've been in the third music tent all evening, but the fifteen year old didn't care for guitars too much. She'd been in and out of the two electronic music tents all evening, occasionally dropping by a Contest tent to see if something good was happening.

So far, she'd seen nothing she couldn't see from normal Coordinators she'd face. Contests were great to participate in, but tonight, all May wanted was to have fun and enjoy the music.

She'd tried to get Drew to come over for this, but the older teenager had begged off for some weird reason, a few hours before. Veronica was around as well, but last May saw, she'd been more than a bit drunk despite the band on her – and May's – wrist stating that they were underage and weren't allowed alcohol. Still, she looked to be having fun, and May couldn't blame her for it. If ever there was a night to just party, it was now.

She accepted her bottle, the chill soothing in her palm, and half of the contents immediately went into her mouth. She hadn't known her mouth was dry, but now it felt right again. She paused to take a look around, wondering where to go next. The tent she had come from looked full even from the outside…

Music suddenly blasted across the beach, pumping beats and shredding guitars and vague singing mixing for auditory overload. For some reason, the barriers had fallen all at once, and the rock music tent noticed first from the sound of it.

Then the screams started.

And the attacks flew into the air. Rainbow-coloured Psychic-energy blasted clean through a tent, striking the stall she had just bought water at, and the chill that followed it up was completely unnatural.

A growl behind her told her of a Pokémon standing there, and quick as a flash, May turned around, a hand already moving to send out her starter.

Houndoom used Flamethrower.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _In an unprecedented move following weeks of public outcry, Unova Champion Alder announced that he will resign from his position, effective August 1. The fifty-one year old came under fire following remarks made after the Liberation of Unova. The protests were led by citizens formerly living under Team Plasma occupation, with many of them feeling that Alder did nothing to help them during the months or even years of oppression._

 _Earlier this week, the Gym Leader Council and the Elite Four voted unanimously to rebuke Alder's actions of the past two years, with Drayden of Opelucid extending his sincerest apologies to those that he said had been left behind to suffer from Alder's inaction._

 _[…] High-level government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that restrictions to bring the power of the Champion in line with other countries might be put to a vote in the legislature. Though this process requires a three-fourths supermajority, politicians from all parties have announced interest or outright support of the bill._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Not sorry about the cliffhanger.


	19. Steely Resolve

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 1** **9: Steely Resolve**

Max wasn't too surprised the Alolan sandslash was able to take care of sceptile. His starter was powerful and could fight for a long time, but bronzong were bronzong, and they were amazingly annoying to get rid of. The fact that sceptile had was great, but then the sandslash came out to play. Ice-Steel was a unique typing, and most of the fight sceptile had left in him had been frozen by his new opponent. Between the barrage of attacks and the Hail, it had been only a minute or two before sceptile fell, Overgrow not enough to close the gap.

He'd gotten a few hits in. It was all Max could have asked for.

He looked downfield, barely noticing the sandslash standing there. Snow Cloak was something Max was very familiar with, if an Ability Max hadn't been expecting when he challenged Girard. Oh well, he had ways around it. "Vulpix, show him what you've got!"

The internal flame would keep vulpix warm, while a quadruple weakness to fire was something he would gladly exploit. It probably knew some kind of Ground-type move, but vulpix was capable of dealing with that.

He could've used honedge and completely ignored that aspect, but larger area covered by attacks like Flamethrower made it easier to hit a slow-but-obscured Pokémon.

He'd need to be quick about it, though. Hail was going to wear vulpix down.

Flamethrower melted the first Icicle Spear outright. "Middle distance, go right," Max told vulpix. He was trying to keep an eye on the sandslash, though it was hard. "Flamethrower when you're sure."

Vulpix wasn't sure, instead starting to dart through the weather, avoiding an Ice Ball along the way. Her plan was different from what Max thought best, but vulpix worked best with a lot of freedom in her fights.

And it was a nasty plan too. Vulpix summoned the Confuse Ray, eating an Icicle Crash to get it off, but judging by the barrage of ice shattering against shields and ground, it had hit. "Clever thinking!" Max complimented his Pokémon. "Now get back!"

There was no way it didn't have an attack that didn't need careful aiming. It was still a sandslash, and Max had seen way too many Bulldozes in past Gym Battles to discount the move. It seemed to be a Kalos favourite.

The rolling earth went too far off course to hinder vulpix, but it was pretty wide. It also told Max that the Ice-type probably didn't know Earthquake. "Pressure now."

Vulpix crafted three bursts of Flamethrower. The first, an orb, made sandslash move, retreating further into the hail. The second, she swept from side to side. It hit, and it cleared out a bit of the frost that had gathered on the ground between the two Pokémon over the course of the battle. The third and final jet of flame was a concentrated blast heading straight for where she thought sandslash was.

The annoyed "Slash!" definitely sounded like it'd been a hit, but not a full one.

Girard retaliated with another Bulldoze – this one completely accurate and unavoidable due to the distance. Vulpix crouched, and jumped at just the right time, using the rising tide of ground to gain a lot of height. She passed over an Ice Ball, and was even able to send another short burst of Flamethrower.

Sandslash wasn't there. Moving fast, the spiked Pokémon rolled forward, coming up near vulpix with a glowing claw, slamming the Slash into vulpix twice before dancing outside of the range of point blank Embers. "Force it off!"

Vulpix summoned a torrent of flame, large, uncontrolled, and perfect to tell sandslash to get lost. Distance remade, Max's Pokémon took a few steps back, looking decently healthy still.

There was a small moment of nothing happening as both Pokémon tried to entice each other into attacking first, but that was Danny's department, not Max's. "Fire Spin, but be ready to jump!"

The red-brown fox's body started glowing slightly as she started to summon her Fire Spin, and sandslash reacted instantly, sending out a Bulldoze. Vulpix didn't jump as high this time, missing the absolute best timing, but that ended up as a good thing. Icicle Spear overshot, giving Max's Pokémon a free shot for her Fire Spin.

The tornado enveloped sandslash, and while the Ice-Steel hybrid rolled out immediately, vulpix was ready to follow up with a Hex, playing on the burns she hoped it would have sustained from passing through the fire and earlier attacks.

The Ghost attack landed, sending the Alolan Pokémon to its knees for a moment. Max felt his stomach soar, but he clamped down on the elation. "Pressure it. Don't overextend."

The first Flamethrower was met by a powerful Icicle Crash that caused cold steam to form a barrier in front of the sandslash. The second Flamethrower punched right through that barrier, but missed vulpix's opponent, and the third Bulldoze hit vulpix fully, sending her into the air uncontrollably.

Ice Ball hit straight on as well, and vulpix landed near Max. Thankfully, she got up immediately, and the look she sent downfield was… cold. A shiver danced across his neck when her eye met his gaze for a fraction of a second.

Digging deep, vulpix sent out a second Fire Spin, larger than the previous one. She launched it, sending it to the middle of the arena, where she fed it more and more fire. It probably evaporated an Ice-type attack as well, but Max didn't see that, too focused on understanding what vulpix was doing.

Then he saw vision begin to clear, and he understood. The Fire Spin, apart from creating a barrier that sandslash couldn't get attacks through, also melted all the hail falling as the air temperature went from freezing to wildfire conditions in seconds flat. Bulldoze wasn't an option: from that distance the waves of earth were barely a hindrance.

Max had expected the Fire Spin to just fizzle out after the Hail had vanished, but vulpix, showing control Max didn't know she had, pushed it away again, sending it left slightly. He didn't know why vulpix did that, but it was answered soon enough as sandslash hurried out of the way of the tornado.

A Flamethrower slammed into it, knocking it clean out.

"A most noble fight," Girard said as they met afterwards, speaking over the sound of powerful fans pumping fresh air into the room. "Some might say utilising the type advantage was cheap, but truth be told, I had not been expecting a Fire-type after you left poliwhirl to fight my scizor." He gave a short bow. "A most impressive example of hiding your strengths until the time was right. The Forge Badge is yours."

Max accepted the hammer-shaped badge with a bow of his own before asking the blonde Gym Leader about a few details of the match while they waited.

It took Danny interrupting them to stop the questioning. With a small blush, Max took his position on the side, wondering which Pokémon his friend was going to see and use. He knew swampert was going to be in there, but the other two he wasn't sure about. All he knew was that it wasn't going to be Danny's new klefki – caught the day before after a long chase and fight involving diggersby and magnemite both.

Ferroseed was beat by a klang, before swampert beat the klang and tied with the bisharp follow-up. The field was more than a bit wet and cracked from Danny's starter doing his thing on it: Water Gun and Earthquake had been the two main attacks swampert had used when not forced on the defensive by bisharp's scythe-like slashes.

Max was not surprised to see dusclops come out. Girard's Pokémon, though, made both him and Serena laugh outright. It got the attention of the Gym Leader for a moment, but he turned back to the battle, eager to guide his klefki to victory.

It was a weird fight. A _really_ weird fight. Both Pokémon wanted to defend more than they wanted to attack, and Protects, attacks meant to block, and even a weird pink barrier that blocked Will-O-Wisp, were common. The arena being as busted up as it was didn't help either, providing a lot of cover for the klefki to use whenever Protect wasn't available.

Dusclops, of course, didn't care one bit about being hit with Fairy Wind, and between her landing a Night Shade or two and exploding a barrier onto the Steel-type, Max thought she'd win. Eventually.

"Don't think I've _ever_ seen a single battle go this long," Serena muttered after a few more minutes had passed. Max glanced at his watch, noting that the length was creeping up on all the previous battles combined. "I mean, it's over by now when your Pokémon spar with dusclops. Is klefki not that strong?"

"Not powerful on attack," Max corrected as keys jingled, klefki moving in front of them. Slowly but surely, it was getting closer to dusclops. Very subtly, too, but the side-profile they had made it easier to keep track of things like that. "It's exactly like dusclops. Doesn't hit too hard, but just outlasts opponents."

Whatever Serena wanted to say was interrupted by klefki suddenly bursting forward. Danny and dusclops were ready with a Fire Punch, but Girard's Pokémon just took it, instead glowing the black-purple of the Dark-type.

And flipping dusclops up and over itself.

"Isn't dusclops heavier than klefki?" Serena asked as Danny's Pokémon struggled to get up, barely fending off the Fairy Wind from her position on the ground. "And how did it flip dusclops when it has no hands?" she added when Max nodded to her first question.

"Pokémon are weird sometimes," Max said, trying to be sage-like and ending up with a glare for his trouble. "I think that's Foul Play. It uses the opponent's strength against itself." A Protect was thrown up too late, the Shadow Ball impacting on one of the keys and sending klefki spinning. "Danny has the advantage now."

Max's words proved prophetic: up close, klefki was unable to throw up the anti-Will-O-Wisp shield of earlier, and a combination of Will-O-Wisp and Shadow Ball on the affected spot a minute later proved to be enough to knock the klefki out. Dusclops looked tired, but Max wasn't sure if that was from fighting a close fight or fighting a _long_ fight.

"It is not often I see klefki succumb in the battle of attrition," Girard stated as he and Danny met, his voice carrying to where Max and Serena were waiting. "You understand, of course, why I ordered klefki to move in closer?"

"You were trying to throw me off by breaking the pattern, and you weren't sure klefki was going to win in the long ranged fight?" Danny said, thinking only a few seconds about his answer. Then, he shot a sideways glance at Max. "Or you saw an opening and tried to go for it."

"The former more than the latter," Girard admitted with a solemn nod. "Though given your companion, the latter situation is probably common for you." He saw confirmation in Danny. "The Forge Badge is yours as well. Wear it with pride." The two joined Max and Serena, Danny walking past them immediately. "I have to wonder," Girard asked, his shrewd gaze fixed on Max. "What had you so amused? All of you, if I saw correctly."

"Caught a klefki yesterday," Danny said from where he'd left his badge case. "Haven't seen it yet, but at least now I know what they can do?"

Outright laughter seemed too much for the man, in Max's opinion, but the smile was wider than any they had seen up until now. "Well, I hope you will be able to utilise its qualities well. They are Pokémon that work well with what you've shown me."

"I know. That's why I wanted to catch it." Danny and Girard shook hands, and Max did the same a moment later. "Thank you for a good battle, and for the inspiration for klefki."

"It is no problem. May the rest of your badge collecting be fruitful."

"Where do you want to go anyway?" Serena asked as they exited the Gym, the outskirts of Aurem as quiet as they had been earlier, industry all around. "You only need two badges more. I guess you can just pick any Gym you want to?"

Max had thought a little about it. Originally, they'd planned to not go here and go to Laverre, but that had been so long ago… "Well… You've got Con... Showcases to do as well, right? Let's see where those lead us."

"We've got time to collect those last two badges," Danny agreed as he adjusted his sunglasses. "Let's see where your Contests take us. It'll be fun wherever we go."

 **~~§~~§~~**

It had been a week since the Slateport Festival had been terrorised, but Max hadn't seen his sister yet. He'd talked to her on a regular phone a day and a half after, but that had been short, May only telling him that she was okay and not injured too badly.

His sister had sounded like she was truthful, but she had told him nothing about her hair being cut, trimmed into a military-style buzz cut. The left part of her jaw was also still slightly red from the burn she had told him about. "That's a bit of a different look, sis. Your hair caught fire?" he said, not feeling the need to tease her. For one, he had limits, and for another, Dad was in the call as well, and he didn't want to be grounded for weeks after returning from Kalos.

May brought a hand up to her face, the movement almost automatic. "Yeah… Houndoom got me. Vaporeon extinguished it, but it was ruined already. Just decided to start over with my hair." She sighed, her other arm making motions towards something in her lap. Probably skitty. "I got so lucky..."

Everyone else nodded at that. She had. Burns were easily healed with the help of Pokémon medicine, and scrapes and a knocked out blaziken had been all else May had suffered from. "The latest numbers are ten dead, and still fifteen wounded in the hospital," Professor Birch said, mostly for Max's benefit. "Police are trying to figure out how it could have happened, but..."

"But like all the other times, they have no idea where to even start," Max finished darkly. "It just happens somewhere, always in a town or city, and it's been getting more extreme over the past year." He took a deep breath. "Something is making them."

"Or maybe it's the Pokémon themselves!" May replied heatedly. "They're the supernatural trio types. They're pretty dangerous if you look at it."

"Regardless of the how and why," their father interrupted in a tone that told them that this conversation had better stop right there, "it's clear that it is a problem. Tate & Liza, Umbra, and Casper have been working overtime to ensure Trainers that their types are safe, but they're phoning it in right now. They – and all of us – don't understand how it is happening. Or who's doing it."

"A Team Rocket cell had a scheme like this once," Max supplied, remembering Ash telling them about the time everything _except for_ Ghost-types had been fallen under the control of a drowzee's hypnotic energies, amplified by a large machine. "Mandarin Island, about four and a half years ago."

"That was in one place," Professor Birch countered. "I'd ask how you know about that, but I think the answer to that is the same way I know about it."

Max doubted that, but he had looked up the incident online a while back. "Probably. And maybe the technology is better now? Make it portable?"

"Your guess is as good as any," his father remarked, sighing. "Still, if it's some kind of disease, you might be better off keeping your Psychic, Ghost, and Dark-types in Kalos for the time being. It's happening too much, all over the place, and I don't want you to get hurt by your own Pokémon." The Gym Leader looked away for a second, hearing something off-screen. "And no, Max, that's not something I'm ordering you to. Just… It might be better."

"I'll think about it," Max said, lying through his teeth. If any of them noticed, he didn't care. He was not going to do it.

A bit of idle chit-chat followed, but May had to leave before too long because the Slateport Center was still full to burst, and time on the videophone was limited. Max did manage to extract a promise from her to write Serena about Contests. His Dad left at the same time for a late challenger, leaving only the Professor and himself in the call.

Max took a look around, not noticing anyone else in the Aurem Center lobby. "I'm not doing it."

"Maybe you should think about it," the Professor replied, holding a hand up to forestall Max's reply. "Not because it's some disease – that's a stupid theory that's been making the rounds and trust me, I've been trying to collect evidence to the contrary."

"Why should I do it, then?"

"Because whoever is inciting these Pokémon has shown resourcefulness and is capable of striking anywhere," came a weary reply. "My laboratory is far less safe than you think from this. It's good at keeping Pokémon from being stolen, but a rampage could cause a lot of problems."

"Oh..." Max didn't really know what to say to that, or even if he should send his Pokémon to Kalos. "They haven't consulted..."

"Not as far as I've heard, and it's become less likely since the election." Max made a face, causing a weak smile. "The truncated version is that the new ruling party is very at-odds with the G-men. Glacia is a member, and you've probably heard her on them before."

Max actually hadn't, but he could imagine the words of the Ice-type Master anyway. "So..."

"So they won't listen. Foolish, in my opinion, but such is the will of the people," the Professor told him before letting out a deep, weary sigh. "Everyone and their skitty has ideas about what the cause of the attacks is, but few are substantiated. It is easy for people to ignore whatever they don't agree with right now, and politicians are better at that than most."

"That's stupid."

"That's psychology," Birch corrected calmly. "And don't forget, just because we have more information than they do doesn't mean we're guaranteed right. The evidence is still circumstantial." Another sigh, just before a soft chime went off. "I need to go, Max. I'll talk to you later."

"See you later, Professor."

Max made to press the button to end the call, but a sudden motion made him stop. "You didn't get the Glacia information from me, okay?"

It was only an hour and a half later that Max found out why. In Hoenn – and Sinnoh and Kalos too – it was forbidden to even make mention of your politics in public if you were a Gym Leader or something similar. It was a strange rule, and one Max didn't understand at all, but it did explain why the Professor wanted it to be kept secret. And it explained why Roxanne had gotten into trouble – Dad had told him about that.

It also made Max even more sure of his opinion that politics sucked.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max shot upright in bed, his heart pounding in his chest. A deep breath in, his mouth dry and foul, his thoughts trying to catch up to what had happened.

He had had a dream. A really, really weird dream. Most of the details were already slipping away, but he remembered… Fire. Ashes. Destruction? Fear? _Clean_ _ing_? That wasn't even something you could feel!

He shook his head, getting out of bed, the tiles slightly cold to his feet, despite the night's heat. The digital clock looked like it had a 4 as the first digit. He walked over to the bathroom, closing the door carefully – or he thought until it slipped shut with a bang – and flipped the switch for the small spots over the mirror.

It was nearly too much light, but he could manage by facing away from them.

He had the vague feeling the dream… nightmare… whatever… That it was important. Somehow. Somewhere. He didn't know why, or even how, but it just was.

And there was something familiar about it too. Max didn't _think_ it was a recurring dream, but there was something in his brain, in his memory, that made it feel like something he had done or met or seen before. He sat down on the closed lid of the toilet, pressing two fingers to each of his temples, and tried to think.

He didn't find anything, while his mind started feeling more and more awake as he tried to remember what it had been.

Jirachi, he hated forgetting stuff.

His body didn't agree with his mind, his legs still heavy with sleep, his eyelids so comfortable whenever he closed them. He had gone to bed late, and he'd not slept all that long the nights before either. His body yearned for more sleep, combating Max's desire to find out what he had forgotten.

Two glasses of water and a visit to the toilet later, Max crawled back into bed, the sheet cooler than he remembered it being. His pillow was damp, and he brought his hand to the back of his head, finding it clammy to the touch. "The hell," he whispered, quiet enough that he had doubts about him actually saying it. "Some dream..."

Perhaps he'd have more luck remembering it in the morning.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Durocor City was one of those places that lived and breathed history. From narrow cobblestone streets designed far in the past twisting and turning around central locations to museums everywhere to the largest religious building – a cathedral to arceus – Max had ever seen, every moment spent in the inner city meant being confronted with the tales of the past. Every other street had a plaque commemorating something or other, and monuments of all kinds felt more common than trees while you were strolling along the busy streets.

Max could probably spend a week just visiting museums here, let alone do other stuff like train Pokémon, talk to his friends, goof off, or maybe even eat and drink.

Goofing off was what they were doing, though, as they had joined a lot of others in enjoying the summer sun in the cathedral's huge cloister garden. He and Serena were lazing, along with cherubi and ferrothorn. Sceptile would have liked the sun as well, but there was a size limit to the Pokémon allowed out, and sceptile was far over it. Danny was off nearby, having joined a few strangers in throwing frisbees around. It wasn't quite hot enough to not want to do anything, like the heat wave they had struggled through last year, but it was warm enough to not want to fall asleep in the sun.

As far as Max was concerned, it was great summer weather. A bit warm for walking maybe, but there was a breeze that they were mostly sheltered from by the cloister itself.

He looked to his left, noticing Serena's small Pokémon starting to look a tiny bit flushed. "Serena. Cherubi's getting a sunburn."

Serena mumbled something from underneath her hat, making Max grin. Apparently, she'd been dozing off and wasn't too pleased about being woken up. Too bad he was around. "There. Okay now?" she replied as she returned her Pokémon without looking. She did need two tries to do it – the first attempt was so far off she tried to return Max. "Was kinda sleepy."

"Sleep more at night, then," Max replied cheekily, receiving a rude gesture in return. "Hey now."

Serena hoisted herself into a sitting position, stretching extensively before placing her hat straight on her hair, the wide brim casting a shadow on half her face. "Been waiting to use that, haven't you?"

"Guilty," Max admitted as he rolled fully onto his side, lifting his head and supporting it with his left hand. "Actually… Can you be guilty if you're not sorry?"

"Don't think guilt works like that," Serena said drily, though Max saw her smirk for a split second. "And I don't understand how you sleep so little compared to me. You're only like three months older."

"Oh, right, it's your birthday soon. The… ninth?" Max asked, not completely sure. A nod confirmed it for him. "Anything you want to do?" He saw her look unsure. "Just say it, Serena. You can't change what you want."

"It's kind of impossible, though…" Serena countered softly. "It's silly, but… Mum and I always had days out for my birthday. Play parks when I was younger, and spa visits when I got older." Max made a face. "Yeah. I know I can't ask you _boys_ to do that, but I still kinda want to."

"Most spas don't let us in anyway," Max said, trying to shrug. His elbow slipped, and he nearly hit the ground with his head. At least it put a smile on Serena's face, he noticed as he sat upright. "So… cake and presents it is?"

"Only if we're in a Center. Don't think cake would survive being in our supplies for long with this weather."

Max had to agree with that. "Not the first time we'd postpone a birthday."

Serena nodded in agreement, before reaching into her small purse and grabbing some tanning lotion.

The rest of the afternoon was spent like it had been before Max had spoken up.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The day after their trip to the cloister gardens, Max had remained in the Center while Danny and Serena were out testing something with cherubi and braixen for a Showcase. It wasn't the thing Serena was planning for the next one she'd be attending – from what she'd told them, it'd be cherubi and zorua and some Magical Leaf shenanigans for the Dendemille Showcase – but the great weather had put an idea in her mind late last night.

Max was busy writing a couple of letters. One to Paul, asking how he was after going back home in a snit; one each to Ash and Professor Oak, asking about Mega Evolution stuff, and one more. That last one had been pretty hard to write, because he still hadn't completely memorised everything he needed for the letter, but with the help of a trusty cheat sheet hidden deep in one of Max's Pokémon magazines, he'd managed.

It was about half past ten when he finished the last one, and after writing the respective addresses on the envelopes, Max headed out to the lobby, where Nurse Joy would take the letters and the payment for it.

A city this big, and the Pokémon Center still ended up as the post office. It was one of those Kalos things he hadn't gotten used to yet.

"Pretty far afield you're sending these. Writing to your idols?" Nurse Joy asked as she read the addresses.

"Nah. I know them," Max stated casually as he counted out the money he owed. "The others are two friends."

He could tell Nurse Joy didn't believe him when he said he knew the Pallet Town inhabitants, but she let it slide as she accepted the money. "There was a letter for you as well. It got delivered like ten minutes ago. Mail was early today." She rummaged under the counter. "Here."

It was a fairly bulky envelope, and Max felt more than a few sheets of paper inside. He flipped it to check the handwriting, finding an unfamiliar script: elegant, but slightly blocky.

Max figured it wasn't something he wanted to open in the lobby, and so he went back to their room. He slid a finger under the flap and tore it. As he did so, he felt the edge of a few thin sheets, small and not paper you'd write letters on.

They were pictures. Polaroid pictures. He saw the back of the two he grabbed, and he turned them around, wondering what they could be of.

The pictures were of Max and his friends. In the cloister garden, the day before. One was of just him and Serena, when they were discussing her birthday. The other was of the three of them just before they left, Danny laughing at something. His face was already red from the sunburn he had gotten – the oldest teenager hadn't moved to the shadows when Max and Serena had, and it showed.

He checked the other pictures, counting six in total. Two more of them were of the day before: Danny catching a frisbee and Serena lazing with the hat over her face. The other duo showed Danny, Serena, braixen, and cherubi on a training field nearby. A man's wrist was visible in the last picture, showing the time of ten past ten.

This was getting creepy.

He opened the letter, simultaneously curious and afraid of what it might hold. It was hand-written, in the same script that had addressed the envelope.

 _Twerp,_

 _As you can see, we know where you are, who you're with. As you read this, agents are in place to monitor them. They are instructed to do nothing if you cooperate.  
_

 _Come to the Place du Roi when you're done reading and await further instructions there. If you do, we can agree on a course of action that will be mutually profitable, in more ways than one._

 _I should not need to mention that the police is not to be involved, nor are you to tip your friends off._

The note was unsigned, bar a stylised red R; a logo instantly recognised by the teenager. As if the 'twerp' hadn't told him exactly who had written it. "The hell is Team Rocket doing in Kalos?" he muttered as he regarded the sheet of paper.

He entertained the thought of asking the Professor for natu, but opted not to. If they had located him, they probably knew most of his Pokémon. The ones he had caught in Hoenn were public record, too.

He was probably walking into a trap, but he had to spring it. At least the Place du Roi was in the middle of the old town; busy at any time of day. They probably wouldn't try anything there. He nodded to himself, walked out, locked the door behind him, and set off, gritting his teeth all the while.

It was a tense fifteen minute walk condensed into ten anxious minutes later that Max arrived at his destination. Naturally, he spotted nobody visibly watching the road he should have come from, nor did he see any meowth or distinctive red hair.

Yet, it was barely half a minute before a man deliberately stepped in front of Max pacing around the square. He had fake blond hair, down to his shoulders, and he wore tailored smart clothing, black and dark blue. Expensive sunglasses sat on his nose, but Max didn't need to see the eyes to know who had found him. "I'm here."

"So you are," James agreed, lifting his sunglasses and regarding Max with a slightly cold look on his face; a feeling entirely mutual. "You'll come with me. Act natural."

The Rocket member set off at a brisk pace, Max following. They left the square, heading into one of the alleys off to the side. Left, a winding right, and then straight on, and they ended up at an obviously expensive coffee house. "You are my cousin, and we met unexpectedly." Without waiting for an answer, James entered, Max following a moment after.

Soft classical music played, a gentle bell announcing their entrance. The interior was elegant, almost reminding Max of the Battle Chateau with its luxurious carpets, ornate wooden panels, and the impeccably dressed waiter coming up to meet them. "Welcome to L'AZ, Messieurs. Did you have a reservation?"

"I am afraid not," James replied haughtily. "It was simple fortune that I encountered my cousin, and we could not pass up on sharing at least some time together this fine morning." He leant in slightly. "Do excuse his inferior apparel. I suspect it is a combination of a Trainer's life and teenage rebellion."

"It is understandable," the waiter said, his face betraying no emotions whatsoever. "There are several suites available at this time. Do you have a preference for its location in our establishment?"

"Somewhere private, out of the way, please."

A calm nod. "I see. Please, follow me."

The waiter led them to something that looked more like an old carriage than a regular coffee house table, complete with elevated floors, benches, and table, curtains half-drawn over a window to the outside, with a view of one of the rivers crossing through Durocor. Max climbed into the booth first, finding to his annoyance that his feet fell _just_ short of hitting the ground while seated. "Would it be a terrible imposition if I used my xatu to provide a sound barrier? It will be penetrable, but I do not wish to speak of family matters in the open."

The waiter indicated there were no problems with that, and after giving them a menu, he left, leaving them to mull over their order.

Or, at least, James was mulling it over. Max was studying his temporary cousin, and maybe trying to test if you could kill someone by glaring at them.

Sadly, that still didn't work. "Get a drink and some food. It's expected of you."

Max ended up selecting a mushroom salad – _Salade de champignons de Lumiose,_ pardon – with some orange juice. James gave him a strange look when he announced it, but nothing more came of that.

A carafe of water was left after the waiter took their order, and Max saw and felt the sound barrier resume its work as the adult poured two glasses. "Correct me if I'm wrong," James said as he offered Max a glass, the teenager taking it, but not drinking from it, "but I am guessing one of your thoughts is 'Why did you bring me here?'."

"It crossed my mind."

"Of course it did. Something you never did lack was a working set of brains, unlike the other twerps." Before Max could comment on the backhanded compliment, James produced a small folded sheet of paper, unfolding it with one hand. "You have seen this around town, I presume."

Max needed only half a second, if that, to recognise the advertisement for the Mega Evolution exhibition that was starting tomorrow, at Durocor Musée Central. "What of it?"

"In a minute," James waved him off, smirking when Max frowned. "You'd best remember who has all the cards here."

"Fine."

"Better." Oh, how Max wished he had something to wipe the self-satisfied smirk off of James's face. "Now, you were involved in two incidents with Team Flare, weren't you?"

Was there anything Team Rocket didn't know? And how the hell had they come across that information anyway? "I was," he said, figuring that there was no merit in hiding something they obviously knew about.

"It just so happens that Team Flare is… pursuing goals that run counter to ours," James spoke, choosing his words with obvious care. Probably to not disclose too much – Max figured the Rockets didn't want sensitive information to make their way to some authorities. "One of these is that they have a particular fondness for Mega Stones, as you're well-aware from Coumarine."

The pieces fell into place with a sudden mental clang. "Oh, shit."

"You've arrived at the right conclusion." James raised his arm, checking the time on an obviously expensive bronze-coloured watch. "Our order should be here soon. No sensitive information until we have it."

"You want us to do small talk?" Max asked, his eyes wide behind his glasses, and he felt his mouth hang open before he snapped it shut. "Are you insane?"

He did not expect the soft chuckle that escaped James's lips. "You're not the first to ask me that, you know," he shared, though it became clear that no more was forthcoming. "If you'd feel better about it, we can do a question for a question, and I promise to tell as much of the truth as I am able to."

Max wasn't certain what was more surprising; the fact that the Team Rocket member had offered that, or the fact that he felt it was a sincere offer, as incredulous as it seemed to him. "And if I don't want to answer?"

"Then I ask a different question, and the subject is closed," came the easy reply. Too easy, in fact, making Max realise it had been too obvious a caveat. "In fact, why don't you go ahead and ask the first question?"

Max took a minute to ponder if he wanted to do this. The Rocket member could probably use anything he said against him at some point, if he wanted to do more blackmail, but at the same time, he didn't seem to be aware of a few other things… Was it worth the risk?

He decided it was, and he went with a question that had popped up in his mind the moment James had suggested the small talk format. "What happened after Ash went to Sinnoh? You chased him for years, but you didn't follow."

Another soft chuckle was his answer. "Why am I not surprised you asked that," James mused, folding his arms in obvious satisfaction. "I'll spare you the details, but we were forcibly reassigned. The Boss was… not pleased that we had spent all that time, effort, and money and attained essentially nothing."

Now it was Max's turn to snort. Essentially nothing was probably the best understatement he had heard. Ever. "Sounds like someone was in trouble."

"Save yourself the effort; I won't discuss inner workings here," James replied airily before fixing Max with a stern gaze. "How much of the public reports on the Archie capture in New Mauville is true?"

The question took Max aback, not because it was a secret, but because he hadn't figured it'd come up. "Close to all of it," he shared at length, James surprising him by not pressing the issue while Max gathered his thoughts. "A few details left out, like the one that Archie recognised me from the whole groudon and kyogre thing." He shrugged. "He's behind bars now. That's the important bit."

"That might be one of the few things we agree on," James observed drily before xatu dropped the barrier, the soft hum and tingle disappearing to allow their waiter to place their early lunch on the table. " _Merci."_

" _Bon appetit, Messieurs,"_ the waiter replied, leaving without another word.

Max took a look at the adult's choice for lunch, since James had used the Kalosian term with far more fluency than Max could comprehend. The crepes on a plate surprised him. "The waiter is probably very confused at our orders," James stated as he opened one of the rolled-up crepes with his fork, inspecting the interior. "The teenager with the healthy salad, and the adult with the sugary goodness." He raised his glass of orange juice – they had agreed on that at least. "To a good meal."

Before eating, Max surreptitiously pinched his arm, only to not wake up from whatever strange dream he had found himself in.

The question for a question continued piecemeal, both of them cagey with the answers. Max learned that the reason James was so good at being an arrogant rich guy – one of the more memorable disguises and his current one was one too – was because he had been born into money. In return, Max had to share his encounter with a poacher – something he wasn't too afraid of giving up. It probably told James nothing he didn't already know or suspect heavily.

The food was excellent, filling, and sadly gone too soon. "As much fun as this has been," James said as he put his knife and fork down on his plate with a soft clink, "I think it's time we engage in the main course of today."

"And I think you mixed your metaphors there."

"Perhaps," James allowed. "You guessed correctly that Team Flare will strike at the Musée Central. They will use the same strategies as before to disrupt the external police presence while they plan to sweep the museum itself. It is likely to succeed, except if someone were to be a nosy little twerp."

One finger in his ear, two hard pinches, and at least fifteen seconds of outright gaping later, Max finally found his voice. "You _want_ me to ruin their plan? Why?"

"You know that I don't have to answer that. Not with what's hanging over your friends," James remarked casually, and Max cursed under his breath. "My higher-ups are seeing parallels between Flare and the Hoenn situation. Their goals are different, but it's the same pattern of specific raids and strikes, most with a common denominator."

"Mega Evolution."

"Mega Stones, to be more precise, but yes."

Max sighed. For all the cordial chatting, this was the Team Rocket he knew. Ruthless, and without any qualms about others. And somehow, competent. "I don't really have a choice, now do I?"

"Not particularly."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _The Hoenn Centrist Party and the Hoenn Nationals have come to an agreement on their coalition government, the_ Hoenn Express _has learned. The agreement would be amongst the fastest in recent history, with barely a week passing since the election that pushed the Centrists to a record-breaking forty-five per cent of the vote. The Nationals, despite losing slightly, still carried nine per cent of the vote, leading to a comfortable majority in Hoenn's unicameral parliament. The two parties found common ground in the campaign by promising to bring a swift halt to the recent Pokémon attacks that have been sweeping the region. Though details are scarce, the agreement is likely to use that as the core tenet of their coalition._


	20. Secret Revelations

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 20: Secret Revelations**

Max's brain suddenly switched on. Or it at least felt like it. From deep sleep to full wakefulness in an instant was a weird thing to experience, but it worked better – and quieter – than an alarm clock to wake someone up on demand. It wasn't the best wake-up he'd ever had, but he could live with it.

At least Team Flare had the good sense to plan their strike around 3 in the morning – James hadn't told Max how he'd found that out – giving Max and Danny at least a few hours of sleep before having to do what was expected of them. With the help of swablu – and Max stepping over his own ego because he hated having to impose on Pokémon for something stupid like sleeping – it had actually been easy to fall asleep without worrying too much, but as he quietly got out of bed, he felt those worries return with a vengeance.

Max navigated the dark room with ease, slipping into the adjacent bathroom to drink some water. Danny joined him a few moments later., a Pokémon hopping in as well. "Never doing that again," Danny told Max softly, his voice still a tiny bit thick with sleep. "That was not fun."

Max shrugged. It wasn't the best thing ever, but Danny made it sound worse than it was. "I told you there's no need for you to come. You insisted."

"As if I was going to let you," Danny said flatly, fixing Max with a glare. "You're not going alone. End of discussion."

Max held his tongue, knowing that what he wanted to reply would only cause Danny to become even more annoyed. Instead, he started pulling on the clothes he had taken into the bathroom, stepping into the shower cubicle to give Danny enough space to do the same. "You ready?" he asked when Danny stretched once after pulling a shirt over his head. "Or do you need—"

Max's words were interrupted by the bathroom door opening, revealing a sleepy-looking Serena. The boys and girl stared at each other for a few moments, before Serena found her voice. "Danny? Max? Why you dressed? 's two-thirty."

Danny put a hand over Max's mouth, stifling the order he was about to give natu. "No, Max. No more secrets. We tell her. _Everything,"_ he added, brooking no disagreement.

"Now?!" Max bit out after he wrestled Danny's hand off. "There's no time!"

Danny didn't reply to that, but Serena did. "Can someone explain?" she asked tetchily, sounding a lot more awake than she had half a minute back. "Including why I'm suddenly awake? Like, fully?"

Max sent a half-hearted glare at his natu; the Tiny Bird Pokémon utterly uncaring. "Team Flare is about to attack the Musée Central. We're going to stop them."

"What? How? Why? Just…" Serena spluttered, and despite the situation, Max felt amusement bubble up. "Is this a joke?"

"I wish," Danny replied darkly. "Max got information that they're about to attack, and for some reason, he didn't share it with the police."

"Oh, yeah, a thirteen year old saying that Team Flare is going to attack out of nowhere. I'd be laughed out of the station."

"Then do an anonymous Holo Caster call! Or reveal where you got it from!"

If it hadn't been for James threatening to go through with harming his friends, Max would've done the latter in an instant, and how he wished he could tell them that. "The Holo Caster is compromised. Team Flare can listen in."

"What?" Danny squeezed the bridge of his nose, and Max heard him suppress something like a growl. "When did you… Forget it. Not important now," he backtracked. "Too late now. Have to stop Team Flare."

"I'm coming with you," Serena said, reaching out and digging her nails into Max's wrist before he could speak up. "Not a word. I have my own Pokémon and I can loan some of yours if you want more power. And don't even start about it being dangerous. You have no right to say that."

She released his wrist, and Max rubbed it to soothe the sting. The marks would probably last for a bit. "Fine. Get dressed. We leave in three minutes." He glanced over at the bathroom clock to make his point clearer.

Two minutes and about forty seconds later, Serena rejoined them, wearing simple and loose clothing, her hat uncharacteristically absent. "Let's go."

Natu Teleported them out.

They landed on top of the museum roof, the lights of the city near enough to provide vision to see where they were standing. They were too far away from the edge to be seen from the ground, though. "Good, they haven't—"

As Max said that, someone shouted, and several Pokémon attacks were launched, obliterating something made of metal. The gate, maybe? Oddly, no alarm went off, but metal landing on stone was a good enough substitute to anyone nearby. One of the rods clattered onto the roof, grinding into the gravel. "There should be an entrance here somewhere," Max whispered, looking around, but not finding it immediately. "Try to find it. Natu can Teleport us down."

They fanned out, Max taking care to step carefully to minimise the sound of his shoes on gravel. He didn't know if anyone could hear it – attacks had started to fly all over the place, lighting up the night sky intermittently, and shouting filtered through in the lulls; calls for certain Pokémon to step up and ram the door. That strategy worked apparently, as the It wasn't long before they heard the door give way, granite creaking, cracking, and shattering. That did set off an alarm, but it was quickly silenced. Somehow.

"Here!" Serena hissed, and Max turned around to her, seeing the girl next to a large glass dome. How on Earth had he missed it for that long? "Nobody's there."

Max glanced downwards, half noticing Danny walking up, and saw that they were directly above the central hall of the museum. From what he remembered of the website mini-tour, this was where the history of Mega Evolution was chronicled. More importantly, it was a room that connected the front half – which was all about the Mega Evolved Pokémon – with the back half – which featured the Mega Stones. Every path that went through the inside led through there. "You ready?"

The world blurred for an instant, and natu delivered them to the dimly lit hall. Max took a moment to appreciate the progress natu had made in Teleporting them around – two months back, he had been utterly exhausted after moving three of them half a mile. Now, he wasn't even tired after doing the same over a mile, and doing a follow-up. "Stay together?" Danny whispered.

"For now," Max agreed as the sounds of battle, or rather a Pokémon hitting a wall, travelled down the hallway they were closest to. "Let's ambush them. Klefki knows Spikes, right?"

Danny nodded in return, understanding Max's plan without an explanation. They hastily ran towards the wall, crouching underneath a poster of some sorts. Klefki came out, creating maybe two dozen caltrops from nothing. Serena's zorua also made a few with the help of Copycat and Max's espurr dutifully lifted them high, out of sight of anyone coming down the hallway.

Skorupi and dusclops also came out – the Beckon Pokémon ready to defend them, while Danny told skorupi to lie in wait and flank. The bad lighting allowed the purple Pokémon to hide in the shadows, its small size helpful.

Max returned natu, intent on giving the Tiny Bird a bit of rest while he could, and sent out his own Bug-type, giving it the same order as skorupi, only higher up.

And then they waited.

They didn't have to wait for long. Team Flare members came running down the hallway, some kind of light-on-their-feet Pokémon beside them. Max tapped espurr on the back before starting a countdown with his fingers.

When his fist balled, espurr released the Spikes, the timing perfect to shower the unwanted guests: humans and Pokémon alike. Cries of pain – more human than liepard – echoed through the hall, and Max went on the offensive immediately. "Ninjask, now!"

The world became slightly translucent as espurr threw up a Light Screen to protect them, but they could still see the ninjask dive-bomb the liepard that had been the quickest to respond. The two connected in the middle of liepard's leap for the teens, and the Dark-type was sent down to the ground immediately. Right in front of dusclops, as it happened, and Danny's Pokémon was ready.

A sound behind him was all the warning Max had that someone had come from the other side. "Klefki!" he yelled, and the small Pokémon threw up an amazingly fast Protect that stopped the Dark Pulse – another liepard, how original – in its tracks. "I'll take left. Clefairy, Gravity!"

A second feline Pokémon was forced to the ground, making it an easy target for ninjask to rake claws across; the blue X-Scissor bright enough to cause spots in front of Max's eyes. A Disarming Voice narrowly missed the Dark-type as well, splashing on the wall and causing a few chips of debris to fly off. "Time to move!"

They moved as one, skorupi finally jumping out of hiding to annoy a mightyena while clefairy started jumping around to keep a sneasel busy. Ninjask was dealing with the liepard he had hit earlier – judging by the loud yelping coming from that direction, that was going well. "Zorua, Copycat skorupi!"

Just like the Spikes earlier, there were less projectiles of Pin Missile individually, but it was _more_ in total. Zorua's aim wasn't great, but skorupi's armour just caused the few missiles that hit him to plink off. The same could not be said for the mightyena, whose belly was unprotected. Skorupi took advantage of the canine shielding its belly from zorua by sinking a Poison Fang into a leg.

Ninjask had dealt with the liepard while Max had been looking the other way, but another grunt and two more Pokémon had joined the fray to their left, golett and cacturne turning the odds equal. The sneasel had run over to the other side through where they had been earlier. "Ninjask, cacturne. Clefairy, cover. him"

Magical Leaves kept golett at bay while ninjask dove in, weaving around a flailing arm and delivering an X-Scissor to the side before dipping low to the ground, banking around a plinth and coming back out to start annoying golett. The Ghost-type tried to land Shadow Punches, but those three landed on floor, wall, and plinth, while ninjask charged up a Shadow Ball.

Meanwhile, clefairy had used Encore to lock cacturne into… Spiky Shield? Max counted ninjask lucky he'd been inside the shielded area before delivering the X-Scissor. "Golett now, ranged."

He trusted ninjask's Shadow Balls and clefairy's Disarming Voice to keep their opponents busy, and he turned around just in time to see espurr haul skorupi out of the way of a pouncing mightyena. Its face met stone, and it was dazed just long enough for klefki and zorua to tag-team it with Fairy Wind. "You okay?"

"Skorupi took a knock. He'll be fine," Danny said as he gestured dusclops forward. A carefully controlled Will-O-Wisp appeared, melting an Ice Shard attack. "Not as strong."

Max agreed. It reminded him of the battle in the Glittering Cave, except they'd had five months of training since then, and Team Flare hadn't. "More Spikes?"

Max took Danny sending out magnemite as a yes, and he switched his attention back to ninjask and clefairy, noticing that another Pokémon – a yanma – was dogfighting with his ninjask, leaving clefairy to fend off two Pokémon.

To her credit, she tricked a Shadow Punch into hitting the cacturne with clever jumps, but it was dangerous. "Back!" Max ordered as he released honedge behind him. "Shadow Sneak," he whispered, and a cold feeling passed by his ankles as clefairy rolled through a Poison Sting to get behind the Light Screen espurr had just pushed through. "Not poisoned?"

A dome of Gravity appearing over cacturne, forcing him to stay in place while honedge snuck by to hit golett was her answer. A quick look down also didn't show any of the outward signs of being poisoned.

Max glanced up, seeing ninjask barely avoid an Ancientpower that shot through to smash against a map on the far left wall. "Out, ninjask!" he yelled, not because the Ancientpower was a problem, but because of what followed. "Honedge, up!"

The moment yanmega came out of its evolution, honedge slammed into it with all his might, blade first and sheath after. Yanmega dropped a few feet, and it dropped a few feet more after ninjask Slashed past it. "Clefairy, big Gravity. Espurr, get ready!"

Ninjask and honedge shot out of the way as Gravity enveloped both golett and yanmega. Honedge was behind it, and Max didn't see where the Ghost-type was, but ninjask immediately went back to annoying cacturne, who had launched an Energy Ball at clefairy. Light Screen diminished it, allowing clefairy to hold the Gravity.

Then a wave of Psychic energy blasted outwards, and with it, two dozen spikes went flying. Cacturne ignored the energy, but several caltrops hit it, and golett was too slow on turning incorporeal to avoid several of them from slamming into its belly. It put one arm to the ground, looking tired and in need of a short moment to catch a second wind.

Then ninjask decided to drop a Shadow Ball by, and the Ghost-type sank to the ground.

"Max! Someone's getting through!" Serena yelled from behind him before ordering zorua to use Pursuit.

Max just saw the fat man for two seconds before he went out of view into the rooms to their back. "Shit. Need to go there. Can you hold them?"

"We'll have to," Danny said as he sent lairon out. Skorupi was nowhere to be seen. "Go. We'll keep them here."

"Serena?" Max asked, and the girl gave him a finger snap as she turned around. He handed her two pokéballs. "Honedge, with me!"

He saw a golbat fly down to intercept him as he ran right, but a well-aimed pair of Psybeams intercepted it in turn, and the bat went down to braixen and espurr's combined forces. Other Pokémon weren't close enough to hinder him, and he hurried into the hallway,, the curved path not giving him full vision. "Honedge, lead. Sceptile, rear," Max said as he slowed down, sending his starter out.

He really hoped Danny and Serena could stop the grunts from coming through. The last thing he needed was to be ambushed from behind.

The further he walked into the hallway, the more he slowed down, realising that if someone wanted to ambush, the room up ahead was a perfect place for it. He couldn't see anyone, but neither could he hear anything except vague sounds of battle from behind.

For the second time in less than a day, Max found himself needing to spring a trap, the situation as annoying as the first. Espurr was back with Danny and Serena, baltoy wasn't here. He did have natu though…

"Are you going to try and stop me?" a voice, vaguely exasperated, rang out, and the man it belonged to stepped into sight. Unlike most Team Flare members, this one wore goggles instead of tinted glasses or visors. "Ah, I had wondered who would follow. You're one of those who interfered in Coumarine, aren't you?" The man laughed coldly. "Or your Pokémon did. You were in entirely too much pain to do anything. If you leave now, we won't have to repeat that."

"As if!" Max said, sending natu out for good measure. The bird tittered and jumped up. A malamar floated into view in response. "You want those Mega Stones, you're going to have to fight me for it!"

"How predictable. Malamar?"

A violet sickle flew towards them, sceptile blocking with a Leaf Blade of his own. He skid backwards a few inches under the attack's force, but immediately launched himself back into the fight, dropping the Leaf Blades and lighting up the X-Scissor.

Malamar rapidly fled from the Bug-type attack, the sideways movement allowing an Air Slash to hit sceptile. Two of the blades went on through, hitting the ceiling above Max and causing a sprinkler to be set off. He raised his hand to his shoulder. "Honedge, get that crobat. Natu, Teleport into the room."

In the blink of an eye, he was near three of the Mega Stones on display, sceptile and malamar fighting in the entrance to the room while honedge had flown in to keep crobat busy in the air, and natu joined in with that with his Hidden Power, the Ice-type attack slamming into crobat from a blind spot and allowing honedge to get a Slash in before crobat was able to use its superior speed to get away.

Max looked back down, checking if sceptile was still okay, but he need not have worried. His starter was doing what he did best: keeping the opponent completely on the defensive as X-Scissor after X-Scissor met desperate Psycho Cuts to defend. It was looking good, though Max had to get out of the way before the fight reached him.

Wait, where was his opponent?

Oh, that son of a houndoom… "Hey, stop that!" Max yelled at the man, who was using some kind of device to slice right through the glass cases on the far left of the room. He didn't look up immediately, instead taking the Mega Stone – a reddish one – before turning to face the running teenager.

"Tu!" came the chirp from up high at the same time as Max's neck hairs stood on end, and he threw himself into a dive and roll left, the crobat swooping down missing him.

"Most impressive!" the man commended him, smirking as he adjusted his goggles, his Pokémon hovering to his left. "Learned from your mistakes in Coumarine? Crobat, get him!"

The winged Pokémon vanished from sight with Agility, reappearing close enough that Max heard the air displacement. He ducked on instinct, the Wing Attack bright in the corner of his eye, passing close by his head.

Too close, as he heard and felt one of the arms of his glasses snap, the remainder flying off and turning the world unfocused. That had been entirely too close for comfort.

His opponent laughed; a cold, mirthless laugh that reminded Max of Team Rocket gloating. "Oops," he drawled as crobat swooped in for another round – honedge throwing himself in the path physically to block. The Steel-type was kept in place long enough for natu to hit with Confusion too, if the blue glow was anything to go by. "Na tu-tu!" the bird chirped angrily as he landed in front of Max. Honedge fell, exhausted.

Then white flared out, forcing Max to close his eyes.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny followed Max's run out of the chamber, ordering espurr to Psybeam the golbat trying to intercept his friend. Zorua joined in, too; the attack slightly weaker, but still powerful enough to add to the pain. He saw Max safely reach the corridor and turned back around, snapping his attention back to the entrance to see an unwelcome surprise of more liepard and mightyena. "Need to pull back," he said, calling out a target for klefki and magnemite as he did. The sneasel writhed in pain and finally stayed down. "Serena!"

"Got it! Clefairy, Encore, then move back! Braixen, Ember to cover us!" Serena replied before taking steps backwards, not taking her eyes off her battle.

Good. At least she was focused on that. "Oh, for crying out..." Danny muttered as he saw even more Pokémon join the ranks against them on the other side, making it about nine on twelve. Not a lot of diversity, though. "Lairon, go wild on the right!"

Liepard, mightyena, and one lone golbat had no real way of dealing with a lairon, Danny figured.

The other side was more diverse. Danny was surprised to see a manectric there, peppering ninjask with careful jolts, but it made sense. Yanmega had vanished, and that left nothing in the air except ninjask. "Low Shadow Ball left. Fairy Wind lairon."

Dusclops and klefki launched their attacks, the Ghost hitting manectric judging by the loud yelp and the Fairy Wind washing over the frantic fight as lairon sought to keep as many of the quadrupeds occupied with him instead of the group of Pokémon and Trainers. It was working, but at five to one, he needed help. "Swampert, go help lairon!"

His starter appeared in the middle of the fray, immediately being jumped on by a liepard that regretted its decision a moment later as swampert grabbed it, and threw it into the descending golbat. The Pokémon collided, the golbat falling to the ground and the liepard landing on its feet, immediately jumping back in onto swampert with a glowing Shadow Claw. That attack, too, didn't land, as a Water Gun intercepted it, sending the quadruped back down, skidding into golbat. Both Pokémon were returned as a mightyena tried to Fire Fang lairon, with mixed success.

It did bite the Steel-type, but then lairon moved its body up and down, while mightyena kept hold. The landing was hard, and the Dark-type yelped in pain.

The world dimmed as he turned back to Serena's half of the room, seeing clefairy set upon by the manectric, while ninjask came back out as Serena used the return mechanic to pierce through a wall of flame. "Braixen, Fire Spin that cacturne!"

The fire alarm went off, but Danny paid it no heed as cacturne avoided being incinerated with the help of a regular Protect. The shield left it open to ninjask's X-Scissor, though, as well as a Shadow Ball from dusclops. It finally went down, though ninjask had to avoid a furious Thunderbolt as well. "No holding back!" Danny told Serena as he glanced right – everything was going as okay as could be there. Swampert's Protect blocked a few Dark-type attacks, while lairon did what he did best. "They're trying to swarm us."

He really wished he'd taken froslass, but he'd wanted to keep the damage to the museum a minimum.

Glancing around, he realised that his intentions were useless. Even with the amount of short-ranged Pokémon on Team Flare's side, there was a ton of random damage to the museum. Danny ducked for a Thunderbolt, but Light Screen and two Psybeams blocked it anyway, a flash and the smell of ozone the result.

Then swampert roared angrily, punching and swiping without a care what he hit. A mightyena was punched straight through a window, while a brave liepard tried to hang onto the Water-type's back. A violent twist later, the liepard went flying, and Water Gun sent it straight into the Team Flare grunts, though they returned it before could land on them. Lairon was a couple feet away, holding another round of new Pokémon at bay. How many of them were there? "We need to move," he told Serena, not waiting for her to reply before yelling for an Earthquake.

He felt espurr stabilising the two of them with her Psychic powers as the two Earthquakes tore through the room, cracking the wall, upending a plinth or two, and generally taking care of the swarm of Pokémon trying to fight his two Pokémon. Lairon made good use of one mightyena cowering on the floor by sending it flying into another one, but both of them could continue.

They just didn't want to give up. "More!"

This time, espurr didn't stabilise them, and Danny saw Serena trip, the cry of pain immediate. "Are you alright?" he said as he grabbed her and put her back on her feet.

The grimace of pain told Danny everything he needed to know as he helped her walk a few more steps, swampert and lairon still fighting back to back far away, while dusclops covered them close-by. "Ankle. Clefairy, use Metronome!"

"Protect!"

Parabolic Charge arced out, draining at least six Pokémon, sadly including ninjask, who finally went down, but clefairy was ready for round two, judging by the size of the Disarming Voice. It crashed into the manectric on the other end, lifting the canine off its feet and slamming it into the houndoom behind – the Dark-type punished for hiding behind its team mate. "That worked out. It – espurr!"

Espurr was lying where they had been, exhausted, out in the open.

And Max hadn't given them her pokéball.

A fletchinder, coming in from the right side, saw espurr lying there, and Danny recognised it going into a dive attack.

He abandoned Serena, jumping and diving for the small Psychic-type, hoping he was there before the Flying-type was.

He was. Barely. He saw the bird's talons, closed his eyes and…

Biting, sharp, _searing,_ pain. He slammed into the ground, his right temple throbbing, burning, and the wind knocked out of him. Espurr was near his knees, the fletchinder up above. Deathly cold energy forced it away.

And the room trembled. Not with an Earthquake, but with anger.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Xatu was only a few inches shorter than Max was, he noticed. The second thing he noticed was a lack of crobat near him, but sceptile letting out an annoyed cry answered that question. "Xatu, Confusion!"

Did the ground just shake?

Malamar blocked the Confusion with a Dark Pulse, and then tried to swipe at xatu with a Night Slash.

Xatu Teleported away, the attack impacting on the ground near Max's feet, sending slivers of rock raining across his trouser legs. He looked at inkay's evolution floating maybe fifteen feet away.

Malamar instantly built up a Confusion, and Max moved, aiming to avoid being hit by the attack. Once grabbed, he had no way of escaping a Pokémon that powerful, and he knew it. He ran, closer to xatu, away from the Team Flare member.

Then red light shot past malamar, and the world exploded into blue.

He felt himself being lifted off the ground, back first, like a force field expanding, only worse. His arms and legs went behind his torso as much as they could while flying.

The landing was hard and painful. His right hand was stuck underneath his body, and something gave in there, his wrist stabbed by pain. His entire body ached from the landing, but he still rolled out of the way, mindful of the Pokémon.

He looked up just in time to see the malamar squeeze itself through a window. Sceptile ran after it, but a soft "Xa" made him stop and turn towards Max, a soft green glow fading.

By the time his starter reached him, Max had gotten up again, using his left hand to give himself the last push off the ground. His right wrist hurt, but it clearly wasn't broken, or he would have felt it more. This was painful, but it didn't hurt more when he moved or touched it. "Thanks. All of you," Max said, seeing honedge stir on the ground. The Ghost-type must have only just been out of it. "Honedge, get some rest." He took a moment to catch his breath a bit more. "Xatu. Back to Danny."

The xatu spread his wings, one touching Max, the other touching sceptile, and the familiar sensation of Teleportation washed over Max.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny opened his left eye, feeling blood run down his face, and saw pure white mingle with Torrent blue. A powerful Water Gun shot across the room, but Danny kept looking at his new aggron, who stood back to back with swampert, and looked angry.

Murderous.

A single well-hit punch sent an unfortunate liepard flying into the wall hard enough that plaster fell down on it, and then he stomped off, the ground shaking with every furious step.

The fletchinder was frozen in fear for a bit too long, and aggron _squeezed_ before throwing the bird away like a rag doll. It landed near Danny, but if it hadn't been for the pitiful moans, barely audible over aggron rampaging, he would've thought it dead. Its wings were covered in blood, and bone was visibly sticking out. It was a revolting sight, but one his stomach could easily handle.

Truthfully, he couldn't even find it in himself to feel sorry for it.

Swampert helped him up, Torrent faded, but his starter still okay enough. "Thanks," Danny said as he put a hand to his temple, feeling for the wound.

It was smaller than he thought from all the blood coming down his face, but it was a head wound. Those always bled like crazy. Blood dripped down from his cheek, and Danny felt it seep into his shirt.

He looked around the room, seeing surprisingly few Team Flare Pokémon, except for a few trying to keep aggron at bay without too much success. Yelps and cries came from the direction; stone shattering as Pokémon were slammed into it. "What happened?" Danny yelled.

"They retreated," Serena said from next to him, a blue glow fading as she leant into swampert. "Thanks braixen. Great work."

With a shout and a smoke bomb, the last Flare Pokémon vanished from sight, leaving a surprisingly quiet room once all was said and done. The fire alarm had stopped at some point – arceus knew when, really – and now it was just swampert, clefairy, dusclops, aggron, and braixen left standing. Klefki had been floating earlier, but he had landed in swampert's palm, looking completely and utterly spent. Not too surprising after how much he had thrown around over the course of the battle. Dusclops wasn't much better, and Danny returned both of them with muttered thanks.

The room was a mess. Walls were cracked, either from impact or from the ground up thanks to Earthquake; water had pooled in several spots from a few Water guns; just about all of the plinths had been demolished outright; a few scorch marks peppered the floor… Anything related to the exhibition in front of them had been utterly destroyed in the fight.

But they were still here.

As was the fletchinder, and a single liepard. "Thanks aggron," Danny greeted the newly evolved Pokémon as he walked back over, the shaking a lot less now. "You were amazing in keeping them busy." He raised his left hand, feeling the smooth metal underneath aggron's chin with his fingertips. "Can you bend a little? I'm not that tall ye-"

Danny's legs went weak, causing him to wobble, but aggron was there, an arm suddenly underneath his butt. His feet left the ground, and he felt the Steel-type's shoulder spike near his side. "Thanks," he said as the Steel-type did the same for Serena, who smiled wordlessly.

Just then, a thirteen year old boy appeared out of nowhere, about thirty feet in front of them, his back to them.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Xatu's Teleport was smooth, not even jarring Max's hurt wrist in the loose grip he had on it with his left hand. He reappeared in the central hall, and it wasn't just the blurring that had changed since he last saw it. Even with his limited vision, he could see the damage dealt to the room. A liepard was off to his right, too, lying unconscious underneath a blown-out window, light reflecting off the shards of glass to tell Max that had happened.

He turned around, and saw a few things. One: some red Pokémon – fletchinder maybe? - was lying on the ground in a pose that did _not_ look okay. Two: Danny and Serena were sitting in the arms of an aggron, and three: there was definitely something red trickling down Danny's face. Blur or no blur, it couldn't be anything else than blood. "The hell happened here?" Max asked as he returned sceptile, who was obviously not needed any longer and was probably tired as anything.

Danny's answer of "Earthquakes" explained the damage he'd seen at least. Swampert was out too, making Max guess he and aggron had done so. "Espurr's to your right. Exhausted, I think. What happened to your wrist? And your glasses?"

"Malamar did a Confusion pulse, and it hit the ground first," Max told them as he scanned the ground for espurr, the pale grey annoyingly good at blending in with the debris. "Crobat Wing Attacked me, but only got glasses. Can you point espurr out?"

"Try looking down," Danny remarked as the sound of sirens filtered into the building. "Took them long enough."

Max returned espurr and carefully walked over to the newly evolved Pokémon. Danny and Serena became a bit clearer, but not much. "We all got banged up, huh. What happened to you, Serena?"

"Earthquake and my foot on some debris. Ankle," Serena said, sounding distracted, and showing the reason for it a moment later as she handed Max two pokéballs. "How'd you know I was injured?"

"A guess," Max admitted as he ran his fingers across the aggron's plates. "Can't think of another reason why aggron would carry you, too."

Just then, a few police officers ran into the room, the crackling of electricity audible and the sensation it brought palpable before Max even turned around. "Hands where we can see them!" a Jenny shouted.

Max turned around, hands obviously away from his belt, seeing at least six manectric all ready to unleash a Thunder Wave, if he recognised the crackling sounds right. "They've already left, Officer. About-"

"What are _you_ doing here?" another Jenny blurted out, and Max turned his head to the left side of the room, seeing one of them step past the manectric. "This is the second time you're at a scene with Team Flare now!" she added, sounding as if she couldn't believe it.

Max, meanwhile, had no idea which of their previous encounters she was referencing. "I'd love to explain, but..."

"You're a mess," the Jenny finished, also confirming her identity to Max. It was the one who'd interviewed him in Coumarine – she'd been sympathetic and willing to speak to him like an adult, unlike the one in Ambrette. "And do I want to know why you're here?"

Yup, definitely the one from Coumarine. He recognised that tone from her questioning his decision to Teleport to Hotel Coumarine.

 **~~§~~§~~**

It was close to six in the evening when the three of them left the police station for the second time that day. The first time had been at five in the morning, when it became clear that they were just too tired to give good witness accounts any longer. Max had been the most awake, but even he had been fighting yawns every few sentences, while Serena had been prodded awake twice already before xatu brought them back to the Center, a Nurse Joy awake and waiting for them.

After exchanging all of their Pokémon – except swablu and cherubi, who had ended up not being used – for three half-doses of concentrated Sleep Powder extract, they pretty much crawled into their beds, the soft mattress blissfully cold to the touch. They'd gotten about six hours of sleep before the day shift Nurse Joy woke them up for a proper medical examination.

Neither Max nor Serena had broken something. Serena was told to take it easy on her ankle for a day or so, while Max's wrist needed to be regularly iced for two days. Both ankle and wrist were bandaged up at the moment, as was Danny's head. "Whereto now?" the turban-wearing teen asked as he looked down the street. A girl looked weirdly at them, but she kept on walking. "I kind of want dinner..."

"I just want answers," Serena said, repeating her words of earlier that day, annoyance surging back into her voice. Then her stomach rumbled. "But dinner first. Restaurant?"

"Could eat in our room," Max suggested as he took his glasses off, rubbing behind his right ear, where the earpiece had sat a little too snugly. "Gets you answers faster."

Danny pointed to their left, and Max put his glasses back on to see him pointing at a pizza parlour. "How about we get pizza, then Teleport back. I'm sure xatu's up for it."

Twenty minutes later, the smell of hot molten cheese spread throughout their room; tantalisingly good and enough to make Max's mouth water. He took his glasses off again, the reason why they were his spare pair coming to the fore.

He hated botched repair jobs on the arms.

They had a second floor room, but espurr still threw up a barrier to block sounds. Just in case, and all that. "Alright," Serena said from her two chairs – the second one to keep her ankle elevated – while waiting for Danny to finish cutting the pizza. "How much did you lie to me this time?"

"Lies by omission are still lies," Danny chimed in before Max could reply. "I think… two things? This time last year and..."

"Yeah," Max agreed without waiting for Danny to find the word he was looking for. He took a deep breath, grateful that he'd taken a minute or two earlier to figure out how to start this conversation. "Have you heard of the Pokémon G-men, Serena?"

She hummed, the sound vague. "Sorta?" she ventured as she took the first slice and put it on her plate. "Don't they go around investigating big international crimes?"

Danny shook his head as he placed his own slice on a plate. "That's the International Police. The G-men are… different."

"The G-men are about stopping improper treatment of Pokémon," Max recited as he waited for his pizza to cool down. He remembered another time of having cheese pizza. "And no, that's not stuff like individual Trainers treating their Pokémon badly. This is more when Pokémon are forced to do things."

"Like what you told me about those attacks in Hoenn."

"Oh yeah," Max said. "That's G-men territory alright. I first met one of them at the groudon and kyogre thing." For a second, he thought about revealing who it was, but he decided against that. "A big part of their goal is to make sure nobody tries to use Legendaries to throw the world into chaos."

"Wasn't the groudon and kyogre thing fixed?"

"And they still caused a good bit of devastation. Like, crops on all the nearby islands were ruined, and the effect was spreading," Max replied as he bit off a small piece. The temperature was perfect, and the cheese perfectly gooey. "And it was maybe half an hour that they were both doing stuff. Now imagine that going on for a few hours."

"What Max isn't saying – because he's too smart like that – is that groudon and kyogre change the weather on a large scale," Danny interjected, making some form of motion with his free hand. "Do that for too long, on too big a scale, and things start getting weird."

"Groudon and kyogre are pretty tame in their effects, too," Max said, drawing Serena's attention once again if he read her movement right. "Imagine someone doing that with dialga or palkia. Legendaries of Time and Space," he added when he saw Serena go for her Pokédex. She froze. "Or for something you know more about… Life and Death."

"But nobody has seen xerneas or yveltal for thousands of years!" Serena protested. "I mean, they exist, but nobody knows where they are or if they're still alive. And what does this have to do with your secrets?"

Max took a slow breath in, weight he hadn't known he was carrying heavy on his chest. "We're both members. Sort of."

There, he'd said it. He slipped his glasses back on to see Serena's expression, finding it… disbelieving? "Yeah. As if. You're _thirteen._ "

"That's the 'sort of' part. It's…"

"Illegal," Danny finished flatly. "Child labour laws or maybe child soldier. R… The one I talked to didn't know for sure. He said they were mostly focused on the Home Regions, but that didn't mean they hadn't heard rumours from other regions. The things they heard about Kalos..."

"So how did they get to you? There's no way that one G-men agent remembered you from years back, Max. You didn't even have Pokémon then!"

Max leant over to his pack before responding, feeling the object he wanted to grab lying on top. "All to do with this," he said as he threw the case holding the ralts figurine over to Serena.

Sadly, his left hand was unused to throwing anything bigger than a pokéball, and the case landed right in the cheese pizza. Max blushed, Danny groaned, and Serena sounded like she giggled. "That's ralts, right?" she asked after Danny had fished the case out of the pizza, wiping the worst of the cheese off with his finger and heading for the bathroom for a moist towelette. "I thought he'd been poached?"

"He had. And then we found him, evolved, but broken."

"Huh?"

"What Max means," Danny said as he walked back into the room, "is that Ash enlisted us for finding a facility somewhere in the north of Hoenn, around this time last year." He hadn't missed a beat, and Max wondered how that was – wasn't the bathroom outside the sound barrier? "It was a facility meant to broadcast a signal, one that made Psychic-types go crazy. Like the first few Ghost-type attacks."

"They were using ralts – kirlia – to power the signal," Max said, feeling a soft burn enter his throat for reasons that had nothing to do with pizza. He squashed it by swallowing. "We beat them, but kirlia was done for. He… He passed away moments after we freed him."

"In Max's arms," Danny added sourly.

Max didn't need glasses to see Serena's expression turn compassionate. "Anyway, that, and some other things made them talk to us, ask us if we wanted to pass information about Team Flare on," he continued. "And we've been doing that for a few months. Just that," he added for good measure.

"Wait, they didn't tell you about the attack?" Danny asked as he threw the case back onto Max's bed. It bounced and hit the back wall softly. "I just assumed…"

Shit. He'd said too much. "It wasn't them. It was someone else. Someone I really didn't miss seeing. At all."

"You're not making sense, Max."

He looked at both of them, noticing that the pizza was pretty much forgotten by everyone. "Yesterday morning, someone sent me a letter. They included pictures of all of us, and threats if I didn't go somewhere." He heard Danny groan exasperatedly. "I couldn't not! Besides, it was a public place. They couldn't do much there."

"They? Who's they?"

"Team Rocket," Danny guessed, exhaling loudly through his nose before looking at Max with tilted head and a resigned expression. "They're the only one who make sense. The only ones Max could have met before."

It was a small surprise that Danny had figured it out with that little information, but Max wasn't going to complain about it. It saved him time. "Yeah. It's them. I met James, and we had lunch." He saw two faces fall in dumbfounded surprise. "That's what I thought, but I think it was to show me that he didn't mean me harm. He gave me the information, told me the Holo Caster is compromised, and… What's that saying? Made me an offer I shouldn't refuse? Couldn't refuse? One of those two. He wanted me to try and stop Team Flare."

"And why didn't you tell us?"

"Because James implied he had people watching you. Us. Whatever," Max answered Danny's question. "They can be competent, and I wasn't about to risk it."

Serena cleared her throat after half a minute of silence as they worked through the threats that had been sent their way. "Back to the G-men… Any _more_ secrets you're keeping?"

A glib response nearly left Max's mouth. Nearly. "Just one. Vulpix's capture went a little different." He quickly explained how that had gone for real, instead of the sanitised version they told everyone else. "And that's it. No more secrets. No more lies. Might have missed some details, but..."

"You're only giving them information?" Serena asked, and Max gave a terse nod in reply, his mouth full with slightly colder pizza. Still tasty, though. "So why do you want to fight Team Flare? You don't have to, right?"

"I'm not going to stand by and do nothing. Every time they attack, people and Pokémon get hurt. They don't care about if you're innocent or if you're fighting against them. All they want is to get everyone else to move out of their way while they take over Kalos. They're pieces of shit who should be behind bars, not out free. And if I can help put them there, or even try to, that's all the reason I need."

Silence greeted the end of Max's short rant, and he blushed slightly, ignoring his body betraying him. There were more important things than even caring about what your friends think, and this was one of them.

 **~~§~~§~~**

A tense silence fell as the commanding officer finished summarising his report of the Durocor Musée Central attack, the summary quick and effective, crafted with brevity and purpose in mind, along with a tinge of repetition; an understandable feeling to have when recounting something for a second time.

Crucially, it matched what Xerosic had told him; that a triad of deceptively skilled teenagers had caught wind of their plans and had sought to thwart them. The police was no issue; never had been. They were adults, and capable of understanding that this world was flawed. Manipulation had led to an ill-prepared squadron of guards; their typical canine Pokémon neutralised by simple Type advantage and superior conviction until the defences had been breached.

And then the vanguard encountered those who had stood against them, and while there had been a breach for Xerosic to utilise, he had been waylaid as well. Granted, the Scientist had been able to fight the teenager off, but it came at the cost of only acquiring a few Mega Stones out of the dozen present. It was still a success, yet this mounting resistance was perplexing in its source. "Very well. Dismissed."

The officer left, leaving two men in the comfortable underground office; the rotund man left wearing a carefully neutral expression. "You are certain they are the same group who thwarted us in Coumarine and attempted to do so in the Glittering Cave?"

"Having examined the data, yes," Xerosic replied calmly, setting himself up for a lengthy explanation that could probably be condensed. A swift gesture ordered him to do that. "The boy I fought had a sceptile, honedge, natu. The Coumarine group Teleported in using a natu, and grovyle and honedge were spotted there. The Glittering Cave incident also featured a grovyle and an espurr, which was shielding the other two in the central hall."

Lysandre weighed the observations in his mind, and found it plausible enough. "I suspect that you are right, though we will have to wait for the police report for it to be confirmed. You may go now."

"Thank you, my lord."

Xerosic left the room, and Lysandre stood up, walking over to the pyroar lounging in the corner of the room: the beautiful regal Pokémon ever watchful. "What do you make of it?"

His unofficial second in command, hidden from all of Team Flare but him, stepped out from behind the fake porous wall, her gait measured and controlled. "I believe that we should seek to accelerate our plans. Resistance is mounting, and even the strongest of convictions can falter against pure might of numbers."

"Yet Project Y lies dormant still, and Project X has yet to be found," Lysandre countered softly, wondering what she would suggest.

"Perhaps we can forego Project X," came the reply, taking Lysandre aback. "As ho-oh and lugia; groudon and kyogre; dialga and palkia; reshiram and zekrom; they too are yin and yang. Unbalance the scales in one direction, and the other will respond, at the cost of more time for fools to intervene."

"Then we had best implement countermeasures for that."

"Of course. Now, if I may?"

Lysandre waved her on, and his second in command left, using the elevator behind the fake wall to take her up to the café above. She, as ever, had raised points that merited careful consideration, and the perspective of one such as her was invaluable in assessing what resistance might be mounted. Her occupation alone ensured that.

When her emotions did not get the best of her, that was. Fire burned bright and beautiful, and Malva espoused that characteristic perfectly.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Due to damage sustained during the Team Flare attack of June 30 and ongoing investigations, the Durocor Musée Central regrets to announce that it will remain closed until further notice. We apologise for those who had intended to visit our Mega Stone exhibition, and urge them to visit our website for more information on our reopening._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** One thing that always seems to be a theme for villainous teams is that their Pokémon selection is limited in both the games and the anime. Here we saw the downsides of that: two physical powerhouses commanding the attention of half a dozen liepard and mightyena at a time.


	21. Managing Fallout

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 21: Managing Fallout**

It was noon, or thereabouts, when a dragonite deposited the Grand Champion of Kanto and Johto on a rocky island in the middle of practically nowhere. Only one island was visible in the distance, though with better weather, Lance knew the Slateport beach would be visible if you were on the back of a low-flying Pokémon.

He looked around, idly reaching into a pocket for a few spicy Pokéblocks to feed the dragon who'd just flown close to three hours without tiring. Around the Champion and his starter, various Dragon-types skittered about, uncaring of the Pokémon landing or the human standing there. A bagon and a young gible were the only ones that gave him any attention, though they went on with their business when two other Pokémon nearby cried out.

A stretch removed all the knots and kinks of being stuck in one position during the flight here, but something caught Lance's eye in the middle of it. Up on the cliff above him, he saw something… White. Just for a second – it vanished from sight pretty much as soon as he focused his eyes there – but before Lance could wonder which Pokémon it could have been, it revealed itself to be a drampa, who let out a keening cry that rang clarion-clear across the island, its head hanging over the cliff's edge, glancing down before vanishing once more.

The Dragon Master was uncertain what the cry was for: it was friendly, as drampa were wont to be, but it did not come down as he had expected. That was unlike the drampa he had met before, though admittedly, he had met only three, and he didn't own one himself. They were a rare and protected species who lived exclusively on the Alolan islands.

He hadn't even known Reginald had one, but he did remember that the Gym Leader had taken a holiday to Alola sometime in early April; a week that saw nothing but the normal amount of Pokémon attacks in Hoenn.

The fact that there was a normal to speak of was rather depressing.

Several small rocks clattered down, and a look up revealed the drampa gliding down from the cliff, a familiar man on its back. The green and white Dragon-type landed gracefully, and Reginald dismounted equally gracefully, one hand on the drampa's neck as thanks. "Thank you for taking time out of your schedule, Lance."

Lance shook his head. "Steven understood." If not knew outright the reason. Hoenn's Grand Champion was shrewd and sympathetic, though by-laws and personal preference hindered outright support. "I had wanted to speak to you regardless, though yesterday's events… Pushed it up the ladder of importance."

"Indeed." The Gym Leader sat down against a rock, inviting the Champion to do the same. "Perhaps my memory has started to wane, but I do not recall us giving the boys permission to engage with Team Flare, yet this is the third confirmed time that they have."

"We did not," Lance confirmed as his dragonite took off into the skies, eager to fly freely without the encumbrance of his trainer. "I also believe that this is a good thing, and hardly a threat to the secrecy of the endeavour. In fact, I was certain that things would transpire this way."

Reginald shot him a long and piercing look, though hardly one Lance couldn't withstand, despite the difference in age. "It is not my place to presume or demand, but I would like to receive an elaboration on that."

"You need only look at the statement Max Maple made in that press conference after New Mauville," Lance replied as his dragonite started showing off with various aerobatic manoeuvres, starting by throwing up a wall of spray as air pressure from flying low forced the calm sea out of the way. "He genuinely detests those who would use Pokémon for evil."

"That seems simplistic."

"To us adults, yes," Lance readily agreed. "But the world is simpler at his age, more binary: good and evil and all of that." A sudden wave of melancholy nostalgia washed over him. "At some level, that is enviable. A world that simple would make life easy for us."

"This coming from one who was most impressed with the boy's performance in the Ever Grande Conference, praising specifically, and correct me if I'm wrong..."

"His use of strategy beyond his years," Lance finished for Reginald, looking left and seeing the Gym Leader nod gravely. "The two do not necessarily contradict. You forget that everyone has that one thing that drives them utterly. For Maple, it is most definitely as outlined." His fingers tapped the ground. "I am less certain on how the three of them – and that is a surprise in and of itself – found themselves in the museum at three in the morning."

"A Pokémon watching could have been sufficient for their needs," Reginald opined as a dragonair joined dragonite in the air, the two spiralling around each other in a dance that would have caught many an eye, if there were any to see it.

Then again, Kingship was the next island over, and Lance presumed they were used to the Dragons on the island doing anything short of levelling the island. Blackthornites sure were. "Maybe," Lance said, a hand making a wobbling motion, "but it doesn't fit with them. They have Pokémon for it, but… It's not their style." He sighed deeply. "I should probably try to find out."

"A spot of sight-seeing on your next trip could be beneficial." A knowing look greeted Lance when he turned his head; self-satisfaction dancing around shaven cheeks. "Knowledge is power, and I do prefer to know a lot. Is it just for the Champion's League, or..."

"Officially, yes." A nod followed. "Anything you'd like me to find out?"

"It is not my place to ask," Reginald said evasively as a shelgon waddled up, the arm moving to scratch it almost automatic. "Hoenn alone is my responsibility."

"And you are also one of the few to see and know the bigger picture," Lance countered. "Your acumen is second to none."

"If you insist..." Reginald quickly made his two requests, and Lance then realised that the Gym Leader had probably played him. They were too detailed to be anything remotely spur of the moment. "And speaking of the attacks..."

"I expect nothing new has arisen in the past weeks?" Except for continued attacks, but they were a Hoenn fact of life, sadly.

"Apart from the new government sparing time nor effort nor money in their attempts to peddle lies and push their narrative?" Reginald spat bitterly, the vehemence and the sudden change in demeanour taking Lance aback. "They've scaled back their collaboration with my agents, citing a lack of proper evidence and results; put one of the worst options in charge of their own investigation and rumours abound of restrictions on the affected types."

Most of the rant, Lance understood instinctively. Politicians were always a fickle group, and dialga knew he would rather see them gone, replaced by technocrats to spare him the endless bickering. "Worst options? What can you tell me?"

"Lord Cavendish has been reluctant, even recalcitrant, about advice in the past, when he held a post in a previous government. It seems unlikely time will have mended that," Reginald said curtly. "My network also tells me he is vocally adamant that restrictions should be placed on the types, despite the mountain of evidence that restrictions do not work and have never worked."

"What kind of restrictions are we talking about?"

"Mandatory education on the 'dangers of Dark, Ghost, and Psychic-types'," Reginald said, drawling part of the sentence in a way that made Lance suspect it was an impression. "And some form of active Pokémon restriction, though palkia only knows if it'll be a license or an age limit. The factions appear torn on that." The Gym Leader seemed disgusted by the options, and Lance found himself in agreement. "And until I have evidence that doesn't consist of an illegal operation and conjecture, I can't step forward to set the record straight. It is most vexing."

 **~~§~~§~~**

The seviper lunged towards baltoy, the sharp tail glowing an ominous purple as it sliced right through the wall of Psychic energy that baltoy was projecting in front of him. The Night Slash hit home, and baltoy flew back, his levitation failing as well. The landing was hard, the skid long, and the unconsciousness inevitable. The poison seviper had inflicted early on hadn't helped either.

A defeat, but a good battle anyway. Maybe xatu could have done better, but that Night Slash had been a nasty surprise. "Well done," Max said as he met his opponent in the middle, noticing a few charred spots on the stone. Bagon and magmar had gone all-out, to the point of the third Trainer there having to use a prinplup to put out a few fires. "Seviper and crawdaunt, huh. You ever been to Hoenn?"

His opponent; a girl of about fifteen, slightly taller than him with long honey-blonde hair, gave him a confident smile as they shook hands. "Going back in a week Max," she said. The mention of his name – which he had never told her – made him step back. "Jeez. Paranoid much? I was at the Ever Grande Conference last December, but I only had seven badges then."

"That doesn't exactly explain how you know my name. Unless..."

The girl opposite him jerked her head, straightening her hair with the movement, the smile still present. "You look the same as back then. I knew your name before you said you wanted a battle, and it was a good one. As I expected from a top 32 Trainer in Ever Grande."

"Still can't bloody believe that," said a pale and _tall_ teen, his accent thick and foreign to Max's ears. It wasn't Kalosian or anything Max had heard before. "'e does look the same, all of 'im. Hasn't even hit 'is growth spurt yet, the squirt. You're taller than 'im, Elise, 'n you're tiny!"

"Can't all be six foot something at fourteen, Euan," the girl said with a roll of her eyes. "Don't see you challenging him either."

"Maybe tomorrow, if that's okay with ya, Max. Got the move trainin' for today."

"He only does one training thing a day," Elise stage-whispered for Max's benefit. "Instead of normal Trainers doing it here, there, and everywhere."

They vacated the field, Euan sending out a few more of his Pokémon and giving them short instructions in that thick accent. They all understood it, and the four paired off. A marowak soon started launching jets of fire at the prinplup, while a skuntank dodged around a doublade slashing at it. Slashing… "Is that Night Slash?"

Euan nodded, even though his back was to them. "Sure is. Took the idea from Elise, too, with 'er crawdaunt knowing it and teaching it to that snake."

Oh, Max had noticed _that._ "Can you teach my honedge how to do it? Or at least the basics?"

"You have a honedge?" Elise put a hand in her side, looking exasperated. "Why didn't you use it against seviper? Immune to poison and all that."

"He's not here," Max said, imitating Elise's pose for a few seconds, and they dropped it at the same time. Max resisted the urge to call jinx. "Had to pick between baltoy and xatu. Sceptile and clefairy are..." He spread his hands, figuring the experienced Trainers would understand.

Elise did, but she turned to her companion afterwards. "Hey, Euan, didn't you say sceptile can learn Night Slash too?"

"Either that, or the Hoenn Grass Leader was cheatin' with a zoroark!" Euan replied, the light tone enough to take the sting out of the accusation. "You wanna do the training first tomorrow, Max? Tires your Pokémon out so I've a chance!"

All of them laughed; the honesty refreshing and just what Max needed. "Sorry, I don't do easy fights. I'm not my Dad!" he said as took his glasses off, his ear once again itchy from the slightly too small frame. "Ugh, really need to get a replacement," he muttered.

Not quietly enough, it seemed. "I can take you to my uncle's. He's an optometrist here in Durocor, and you really do look like your glasses are too small for you. Is it your spare pair?"

Max tucked the glasses into the collar of his t-shirt, content to not wear any for now. He saw enough of the world to not crash into something while standing still anyway. "Yeah. Real pair got destroyed a couple days back. Lenses shattered, frame cracked, that sort of thing." He saw Elise nod. "How far is it to your uncle's?"

"Three miles? Maybe four? Would need to wait for lunch break..."

Max sent out a Pokémon. "Xatu knows Teleport."

"That'd speed things up," Elise observed drily, and Max heard Euan snort. "Oh, and you don't need to tell me, but… Did you hurt your wrist the same time as you broke your glasses? Sometime very early?"

Max resisted the urge to splutter indignantly. He wasn't used to complete strangers guessing stuff about him that easily. He _knew_ they weren't staying in the Center Max, Danny, and Serena were in, and while a few there had noticed, nobody out on the street had. "What gave it away?"

"You're not a lefty and you did capture that Team Aqua guy," Elise said nonchalantly, as if capturing wanted criminals was an everyday occurrence. "Don't worry. I've got a stupid weird memory for stuff like this. Comes in useful sometimes."

Max could imagine, though he wasn't quite sure what to reply to it. In the end, he settled on something neutral. "So… Glasses? Before they're closed for lunch anyway?"

 **~~§~~§~~**

Professor Augustine Sycamore ended the call with the Durocor police with a sigh and a frown that felt unwarranted to some degree. Objectively, even partially thwarting a Team Flare raid such as that was a great success in keeping Kalos safe, and in keeping Mega Evolutions out of the hands of those who would use it for evil. If they had gotten away with all of the Mega Stones, it would have been a disaster. That only a gyaradosite, aggronite, and audinite were in their hands was a success given how utterly outnumbered the guards had been. Powerful Mega Stones, for sure, but Sycamore had personally lent a houndoominite to the museum, which would have given them a guaranteed Mega Evolution.

At least now there was the rarity of the Pokémon to consider. Audino were only native to Unova, aggron were rare in general, and gyarados were temperamental Pokémon many people refused to deal with if at all possible. Of all the ones that could have been stolen, these were probably the best options.

It was a disgustingly pragmatic way of looking at the incident, but after all the successes Team Flare had had – Coumarine was still the only time they had been thwarted fully – it made sense to do so. There were other instances of their attacks being interrupted, but not a lot.

And two of those had been with the help of two Trainers who should not even be involved in the first place.

The moment Sycamore had heard from the police department that a trio of Trainers had helped fight everyone off, he had had a sneaking suspicion he knew the names of the Trainers, and those had been validated later, when said trio had wanted to exchange Pokémon. He had not asked them outright, but the wry looks sent his way when he asked if the three had had an interesting night had been enough information for him to conclude that it had been them. The suspicious bandage had been a large clue as well.

Luckily, the official police communication towards the media had been customarily vague in identifying the helping trainers, only referring to the teenagers as a group, and not mentioning age or gender. It was something, at least, but it did make him wonder… Why were they there? How had they known? Coumarine had been simple luck as one of them spotted Team Flare, but this took place at three in the morning, and about a mile away from the Pokémon Center. The distance itself wasn't the issue, what with a natu being on Max's team extensively over the last two months, but it did rule out simple eavesdropping or similar.

He rose from his chair, walking over to the refrigerator and pouring himself some ice water, wishing that he could kick back and drink something stronger. Alas, it was only two in the afternoon, and therefore far too early to do that. He lifted the glass to his lips, but he could only sip the water before another call came through, sending him into a coughing fit as the sudden sound caused the Pokémon Professor to jerk instinctively. Part of the water spilled, sloshing onto his coat and trousers.

The number was a familiar one, belonging to one of the broadcasters based here in Lumiose, and Sycamore was reasonably certain he knew what the call was going to entail.

He was right, too, but luckily they offered to do the interview by videophone instead of in their studio. He hadn't much fancied going across town on short notice, and there was a new Trainer coming after three as well.

 **~~§~~§~~**

James walked back into their comfortable living room after two days of hard negotiating with a Durocor-based company. Both Jessie and meowth were there, predictably watching the six o'clock news. "Well, it seems our little experiment worked out even better than I was expecting."

"Wat did ya do to get da twerp to go along with it?" meowth wondered from his curled-up position on the carpet. "And why's it better dan you were expectin'?"

James dropped into his chair, feeling the comfortable cool leather adjust itself to his warm body. That air conditioning unit was worth all of the money they had spent on it. The broadcaster was currently interviewing the local Pokémon Professor about his research. "Just think about it. Three teenagers doing more than the police did to stop Team Flare is beneficial both for Team Rocket and for Phlis."

"Explain?" Jessie asked, regarding him coolly.

"Team Rocket benefits because we keep those twerps off us, and on Team Flare. And, of course, anything that hinders Team Flare benefits us. Influence is not quite zero sum, but close to it," James analysed before leaning over to the coffee table and pouring himself a glass of water. "Even better, Team Flare only made away with three Mega Stones."

"Weren't dey supposed ta stop Team Flare?"

James scoffed. "If that had happened, I would have dropped by the bookmaker's office to place a bet on one of the twerps for winning the Kalos League. They had a lot more people on the ground than in any other operation. Perhaps they weren't as well-trained, but they probably weren't expecting to face more than guards either."

"And how does Phlis get out better?" Jessie asked as she rose, casually tossing a banana peel into the open garbage can.

The executive smirked. "If the police can't protect you, what do you turn to for protecting hearth and home, or museum?" He saw understanding dawn on his partner's face. "Exactly."

"Wat I don't understand," meowth started as they ate dinner about an hour later; the cat Pokémon using his claws to slice up a steak. "How did ya get da twerp to go along with your plan? He's da smart kid."

"Everyone has a price, meowth. He is no exception."

"Just tell us everything already. I'm not in the mood for your riddles," Jessie snapped from over her fish salad.

James glowered. "Fine, if you insist. The twerp is still a twerp, and that means he's loyal to his friends. I found them last Friday, made a few photographs of them with an instant camera and wrote a threatening note about how we had people in place to hurt his friends unless he did exactly what we asked." James speared a piece of his own steak on his fork. "Blackmail is so effective."

"But ya didn't have anyone dere."

"My dear meowth," James said after he was done chewing, in part because it felt right and in part because he knew it annoyed the cat. "We know that. But isn't the point of operatives to remain hidden? He didn't know I was alone, and he took the bait hook, line, and sinker. It was almost too easy."

"You don't think he'll connect you to Team Rocket activity in Kalos?"

"He will," James answered, seeing Jessie glare at him. "Think about it. I had to reveal myself in order to make the threat work, and he is familiar with Team Rocket. He will know we have an interest in the region." James calmly took a sip of his wine as his partner started working herself into a bit of a storm. "But who is he going to tell? It's just his word. Nobody important would believe a thirteen year old, and the ones who would aren't here. It is a risk, but one I weighed extensively."

Silence fell, Jessie's rage at least tempered for now. "Ya know," meowth said at length. "Ya really got a good head for dat risk-reward type stuff. Guess dat's why da Boss wanted you in charge."

"Well, after mew knows how long of crafting plans, I'd like to think I have a decent idea of what will work and what won't." James went back to eating his dinner, but as he started chewing, he remembered one more thing. "Oh, and they got injured somehow. The twerp's best friend had a bandage around his head and the girl with them was using crutches. Not sure if the twerp himself had anything happen to him..."

"How'd ya figure dat out?"

"The negotiations took place in the same street as the police station, and I happened to be looking out the window."

 **~~§~~§~~**

At this time in the evening, even in summer, kid's playgrounds were generally abandoned, and tonight was no exception. The sun was setting, already gone from Serena's view as buildings and trees blocked it, leaving only the orange sky with a tiny bit of cloud cover. Most importantly, nobody else was there, and she welcomed the quiet.

All of them, Serena included, had been looked at weirdly, or asked questions, for most of the past two days. The police hadn't said who they were in their reports on the museum attack, but a few people in the Pokémon Center had figured it out, and a couple of them had been brave enough to ask them what it had been like.

They had been able to point to the police, who had asked them to not discuss stuff from the investigation, but after being asked the same question about half a dozen times, it was getting old. Fast. She now understood Max's leaving the Center early that morning a lot better.

She put her crutch down onto the rubber tiles underneath the swings. The walking aid was probably not really needed, but after spending months using one because of the torn ligaments in her knee, Serena knew that something feeling okay to walk on was not necessarily actually okay to walk on. She liked playing it safe, and so she used the crutch.

It wasn't as if they were out on the road, heading towards Dendemille Town and her next Showcase in a bit less than two weeks. Danny and Max had been categorically against that, saying things about _their_ injuries while suspiciously not mentioning her ankle.

Serena appreciated the gesture, though she thought she had the easiest time dealing with her injury. Experience counted for something, and she had a lot of it. The fact that both of them had been out and about doing stuff for most of the day also didn't cause her to think their reasons were any good.

It was a bit cute how the two boys were all tough one moment, and then seemed to feel all protective about her the next. Serena held no illusions that they would probably stop if she asked them to, but why should she? It was amusing and harmless.

The swing next to her creaked with sudden weight, and Serena looked right to see Danny sit down on the rubber seat. The bandage on his head looked new, too, but a bit… Weird. Off-centre. "Nurse Joy was busy?"

Danny nodded before pushing off, setting the swing in motion a tiny bit. "It's not that bad, right? It feels okay, at least."

"Dunno. Ask Nurse Joy how good it is," Serena quipped, sticking her tongue out when Danny did a half-roll of his eyes. "Who held it in place? Max?"

"Froslass. Wasted some bandages on it too: she forgot to reign in her cold aura."

"It's probably good enough anyway," Serena said as she studied it. "Most of the bleeding stopped, right?"

"Yeah. There was some blood, but that might also have been from taking Nurse Joy's bandage off. I felt some tearing when I did that." He stopped his swinging, turning his head in her direction. "It'll heal. But enough about me. Are you okay after… After what we told you yesterday?"

The Kalosian teenager sighed deeply before pushing off with one foot, easily counterbalancing the swing. Danny followed suit. "You lied. Again. I… I don't know what to think about that," she said honestly, looking straight ahead at the rest of the playground. "I mean, I get why you needed to keep it secret, but… It still stings."

No reply came, and they swung in silence for maybe a minute, the motion oddly calming. Serena found herself quickly wanting to swing higher and faster, but she squashed that idea. Talking was hard when you did that, and they weren't done, she knew that. "Is there more you want to know?"

Serena glanced sideways, seeing an unmoving swing, and she stopped as well, using her healthy foot to brake on the rubber underneath. "Why did you join? Both of you, I mean."

Danny had to dig deep to find an answer, scrunching up his face in thought and opening his mouth at least two times before actually starting to speak. "Me… I thought it was just going to be report on what's happening. Maybe do some stuff like you see in spy films." He looked almost amused at himself when he told Serena that. "Yeah, I was wrong. Max being… Max really doesn't help."

She couldn't help the giggle that escaped her when she saw Danny look all that fond and… Exasperated? Was that the word Max used for it? "And Max?" Serena wondered, only to see Danny's expression change to one of deep thought once again. "Danny? If you want me to ask Max, it's fine."

"No." Danny's reply was fierce and immediate. "You deserve an answer. It's just… I'm looking for the right words." A soft sigh; his hand rubbing against the bandage. "You remember what Max hates, right? People using Pokémon to hurt other people or Pokémon."

Serena nodded cautiously, wondering where Danny was going with this.

"Max never told me why _he_ joined, but it's probably to do with that. A lot. It's not like he doesn't hate criminals, like he said in that press conference," Danny continued, reminding Serena of the surreal experience of seeing the two boys answer questions in a Gym. They'd found a recording online a while back. "But he really doesn't want to see people or Pokémon hurt by villainous teams. That's what made him accept, I think."

"Like Team Flare, and Team Rocket," Serena added softly, the clarification more for herself, but Danny nodded anyway. "Were Aqua and Magma like that too?"

"I don't think they mattered as much." A hand stopped Serena from speaking. "They did some attacks – Max will know more details – but Team Rocket was after Ash's pikachu, and they tried a lot. Aqua and Magma tried to do stuff on a bigger scale, but numbers do count for something."

Silence fell as Danny finished, Serena thinking about everything she had heard. It wasn't anything really _new –_ everything made a lot of sense with what she had seen of Danny and Max – but it was something else to hear it from their mouth. She also knew there was one more thing, but it felt wrong to ask Danny about that.

It was kinda dark when she next looked up, the nearest street light not yet on or not working as the sun was setting. "Danny?" the teenager from Vaniville said, prompting the boy to stop swinging, shoes making a squeaky sound on the rubber. "You didn't want to go to the museum, right? Why did you go anyway?"

"I thought it was… Well, you know,' Danny told her, shrugging expressively; the movement somehow telling Serena everything. "But someone has to keep Max out of too much trouble. Especially after Coumarine." Then, softer, almost like a stage whisper. "I don't think it's working."

Oh, xerneas, that laugh felt good, soothing warmth spreading through her body. "It isn't. He does what he wants, and that's that."

"He wouldn't be Max otherwise."

"Uhuh." A light flickered on. "You wanna go back? It's getting late, and maybe we can sneak in now."

"Sure," Danny agreed, getting up and grabbing Serena's crutch for her. "Sneak in, by the way? Why's that? The questions?"

"Yeah… It's just… Can't they mind their own business?"

Danny smiled softly. "We did stop Team Flare. That's rare." He cocked his head. "And I'm a poet and I didn't know it."

A giggle vied with annoyance in her chest. The latter won. "That doesn't mean they should ask the same questions over and over again. It's stupid."

To Serena's surprise, Danny let out a sharp laugh – loud and full – at her statement. "Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "It's just that Max could have said the exact same thing. He's said similar stuff before."

"About the Team Aqua thing?"

"And more than a few other things too."

They started walking, moving along at a normal pace. "Like what?" Serena asked as they walked onto a well-lit street, a few others walking around while a pair of cyclists passed them as soon as they turned right towards the Center. "That was the only time you had people asking you questions, right?"

"Do you remember what Max and I are?" Danny asked. The question stumped Serena for a second, and he nodded in return. "He's a Gym Leader's son. I'm the Professor's nephew. People expected things of us." A fire engine whirred into life a few streets over, the siren loud and insistent. "Max has complained about that a lot."

Serena still didn't understand. "But you are good Trainers. You got far in the Hoenn League, right?"

Danny put a hand on Serena's shoulder, stopping her, and she turned to face him. The taller teen had a weird glint in his eye. Or maybe it was the light. "Imagine you're in a rhyhorn race. You win, or maybe you don't. But whatever you do, you get asked about your mother at least three out of four times. About how talent runs in the family, or if you're going to be as successful as her, or something. And sometimes, people ask the same thing of you on the streets, after a random battle. Or they say they lost because of who you are." He sighed, continuing a lot less… dark. "That's what we sometimes had. I didn't care too much, but Max… He's always had problems putting what others think out of his mind. Not like peer pressure, but… He just can't understand."

A light went on in Serena's brain, the connection obvious now that she had actually made it. "Oh. It's like celebrity gossip. You expect them to act a certain way even when they're free."

They resumed walking, but not before Danny nodded. "Yeah. That's about it."

"Sucks to be you."

"Oh, go far in the Master Class Showcase and you'll know what it's about."

"If you say so."

"I do."

Serena didn't even need to look at her friend to know that he was sticking his tongue out, but that was okay. They were friends for a reason, and if they couldn't tease each other a bit, what good was their friendship anyway?

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Move compatibility is a strange phenomenon, and even official guides are often inaccurate or incomplete. You can't always assume that even Pokémon in the same evolutionary family can learn the same moves. Just think about the nincada and teddiursa families! Nincada can learn Dig, but neither ninjask nor shedinja can, and ursaring's Charm is a lot less effective than teddiursa's, for obvious reasons. These are rare occasions, and most Pokémon get more move diversity when they evolve. But it's also important to practice, and for your Pokémon to know the moves they use in battle inside and out. A few good moves are always more effective than a dozen bad moves!_

 _From:_ Pokémon Illustrated

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The results of last chapter's night-time excursion from four different points of view, and then there's Max who's used to stuff like this. Blame canon for that.

Also, officially past the word count of the prequel to this, and we're not even close to done...


	22. Resuming Normality

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 22: Resuming Normality**

Two days after Max had ordered a new pair of glasses – they'd probably be done later that week, he'd get a call on the Holo Caster – he, and his friends, were inside, waiting for an early morning bit of rain to end. Max wanted to train some more, but he wasn't about catch a cold for it. "So," he said as he spread the Pokémon Center's map on the table in their room, placing a notepad of his own beside it. "We need to figure out which Showcases Serena wants to visit, because there are a ton of them." He turned to the no-longer limping girl. "Do they always do this for summer?"

"It's only three months to the Master Class Showcase," Serena replied as she placed a list of all the Showcases in the eastern half of Kalos near Geosenge. Max saw at least thirty entries on the page. "They always increase the amount to make sure people can make it there. It's the same for the April Master Class." She took a pen to the list, crossing about six or seven Showcases off. "Those are all near Laverre," she told them. "It's Anistar next, right?"

"Eventually," Max agreed, leaning over to check the list for himself. "Hey, there's one in Anistar too! Beginning of August." He did a quick check of the calendar in his head. "That's plenty of time to get there from Dendemille too."

Serena placed a tick next to the Anistar Showcase. "Okay. Then…" She scanned the list. "There's two on the same day. One in Couriway, one in Fleurrh. Both are between Anistar and Snowbelle. First of September. Those could work, right?"

Max agreed, and Serena placed two ticks next to those two Showcases. "Uh… Why are we only looking at stuff in our path?" Danny asked as he leant over Max's shoulder to look at the map. "Think outside the box a bit. We have a xatu now."

Thoughts and body froze as Max comprehended Danny's words, and the suggestion in them. "Of course. Even if it's only twenty miles per 'port that's still faster than walking," he said, glancing at the list to see if there were Showcases in places they'd been. He saw one in Lumiose on the seventh of September, and one in Durocor the week after that. Colomn also had a repeat, but it was halfway through August. "Can only backtrack, but you're right."

"I always am," Danny drawled, and Max saw Serena give the oldest of them all the same look Max was giving him. "Okay. That's Max more than I am. But I have good ideas too, you know!"

Max shook his head in amusement, the corners of his mouth tilting up. Trust Danny to always find a way to make them feel happy. "So that's… This, and this," Serena said as she penned squiggles next to four other Showcases. The fourth was a second one in Anistar, all the way at the end of September. "I didn't even think about that. That gives me a lot more options."

"It also means you need to practice a lot more routines," Max pointed out, and he saw Serena hesitate for a moment. "But we'll have more time too if we don't have to walk. Still, better start thinking them up." He traced the rough route they'd be taking with his finger, Roughly straight east from Durocor to Dendemille, then south-east to Anistar and Couriway. Gloire City, where the Master Class Showcase would be, was a little north of Couriway, on the other side as a few mountain passes and on the same body of water as Anistar. Max still wasn't sure if it was a proper sea or just an oversized lake. "I think I want to visit the Frost Cavern, but that's the only thing for me."

"There's a tournament in a town close to Anistar," Danny supplied, producing a leaflet from his trouser pocket. He unfolded it. "Last weekend of July. On our route and pretty fun from the looks of it. They even have a beginner's division, Serena."

"I could give it a try..." Serena said hesitantly. "But I'm not a great battler..."

"Only because you've been focused on your Showcases more." Both Max and Serena turned to Danny fully, seeing the teenager lounging lazily on the bunk they were using for storage. "You've got us to help you, and I think you know more than you think you know." He smirked. "Just ask Max how that works. Besides, Contests have a Battle Round too. I know Max's sister is pretty good at battling just because of that." Danny looked up, a pair of fingers on his chin. "I wonder who'd win… Max or May."

First instinct was to give it to May, but then Max got to thinking. He had more Pokémon than she did, and with not a lot of diversity. Ivysaur and skiploom were both Grass, squirtle and vaporeon both Water, munchlax and skitty both Normal. He could probably find a way to exploit that, and he knew most of her tricks, too. "What format?"

"Three or six aside?" Serena ventured with a shrug. "Doesn't your sister have like two more years of experience?"

"Yeah, but she doesn't have a really varied team, and I know how she thinks… Maybe I _could_ win."

"Varied team, said the boy with three Psychic-types." Max sent a glare in Danny's direction, not that it had ever worked. "You've got a point, though. The six on six is in your advantage too. You've done that, and May probably hasn't." He got up from where he was sitting. "Maybe have a little Maple tournament when we're back in Petalburg?"

"But wouldn't May know how you think too? She's your older sister, so she's known you for a long time too."

That was a good question, Max thought. May did know him pretty well, which was probably helped by travelling with her instead of just seeing each other at home like normal brothers and sisters. "But she's also about Contests," Danny told Serena. "She has to split her training between what's powerful and what's good for Appeals."

"And we split our training too," Max countered. "There's too many variables to decide it either way." He shrugged, looking back at the map and idly noticing some of the other Gym symbols on the map, the closest in Laverre, Anistar, and the Dark-type Gym in the middle of nowhere to their west. That one was vacant for now. "It'd be a fun battle for sure. Maybe I will challenge her to one when we're back in Hoenn." He smirked. "Maybe then I'll finally get a good fight from a Petalburg teenager."

"Don't forget who does the cooking."

Max rolled his eyes. "Spoilsport."

Several hours later, they found themselves standing on a rapidly drying training field, about half of their collective Pokémon doing stuff all around the arena while the humans walked around. Max was off to the side, checking from afar for a moment.

Clefairy and cherubi were off doing stuff with Magical Leaf and Gravity, Serena hovering around them, talking enthusiastically. Behind her, braixen was trying to learn how to redirect Psybeam mid-attack, baltoy providing moving targets for her to try and hit. It was something Serena had come up with earlier that day, after thinking about new Con… Showcase Performances.

He'd been in Kalos for half a year, and he still called them Contests from time to time. Max shook his head. Habits were hard to break, and spending so much time with his sister had made sure the habit of calling Pokémon performing for an audience Contests stuck.

Closest to him, honedge was trying to learn to use Night Slash under pressure, pairing with spritzee in an aerial battle. As Max watched, honedge dipped under the very weak Fairy Wind spritzee was using, but the Night Slash faltered as he rose up again, and he aborted the movement, instead focusing on generating the Dark-type energy again. He had taken to the attack quickly, being able to generate it at rest after just a tiny bit of practice, but adding an opponent to the mix was apparently hard for the Ghost-type. "Honedge, just focus on making the attack," Max called out. "No need to hit spritzee yet."

A tassel went to the sword's guard in a salute, causing Max's lips to tilt up, even as a grunt was audible from his right. He turned there, seeing swampert scratch a spot on his right arm. Sceptile was standing off to the side, weak X-Scissor blades glowing, and also looking sheepish. "Careful with those. It's for finding ways through a guard, not for actual attacks through it," Max instructed. "You okay again, swampert?"

Danny's starter replied by scratching one last time before bringing his hands together once; looking ready for another round as something crunched on the sandy floor out of Max's sight.

Sceptile wasted no time in launching himself forward, moving as fast as he would in a normal battle, bringing up his right arm. Swampert was ready for it, blocking actively and powerfully, forcing the Grass-type to move out of the way. That was not a problem for the agile Pokémon, but swampert's defence was certainly effective in holding the attack off. "Got the idea from watching that Fighting-type Elite Four from Kanto. Bruno?" Danny told Max. "It's all about forcing the opponent to deal with the strength you're throwing around."

Sceptile switched tactics, going from somewhat slow and more deliberate strikes to a flurry of slashes, and swampert seemed to have more problems fending those off. "I don't think a lot of Pokémon want to be up close with a swampert." Sceptile's slashes were getting faster, though they also were weaker for it. Sacrificing power for speed seemed a good idea against this defence: sceptile's slashes were overwhelming the bulky Water-type. "And it needs work for rapid attacks like..."

Max winced, and he saw Danny do the same from the corner of his eye. Sceptile had thought to put acrobatics into his attacks, and he had tried to flip over swampert in order to slice him in the back. The Mud Fish Pokémon had replied with a hard punch straight up, catching sceptile right in the stomach and sending him flying away, straight into the path of ferroseed and gulpin practising Rollout. "Well, that didn't work."

"You don't say." Both of them returned their starter: one because he needed a check-up and one because he had caused the need, and they went their separate ways again.

A few minutes passed in as much calm and quiet as sparring could. There was one small explosion as a Psybeam completely overpowered the weak Fairy Wind spritzee was throwing around, but apart the shockwave from nipping at Max's ankles, it did nothing.

Max walked up to honedge, signalling spritzee to pause. "You always dodge under the Fairy Wind," he told his attentive Ghost-type. "I know it's slightly harder to dodge elsewhere, but if I can spot it, others can too."

Honedge nodded as best as a sword could, but then something multi-coloured slammed into him from behind. Steel slammed into Max's chest, knocking the wind out of him, and he felt cloth slap against his lower arm as he fell onto his butt. "Sorry! Braixen lost control of Psybeam!"

Max got up without an issue, grabbing honedge by the grip as he did. "No harm done… Serena?"

The girl moved fast, and a moment later, Max's wrist lit up with a painful scratch, forcing his hand open. Max vaguely noticed honedge resuming his floating, but he was a bit more preoccupied with his wrist. "Don't do that!" Serena said, half-yelling. "Honedge drain life if you grab them by the hilt! Are you okay?"

"Except for my wrist," Max hissed as he grabbed his right arm. "And that's just a tale from the Pokédex. You know half the entries are shit anyway."

Then honedge touched his pommel to Max's arm, and for a moment, the teenager felt the weirdest sucking sensation under and through his skin where honedge had done so. It didn't feel strong, but when it faded, the difference was noticeable anyway.

Was it his imagination or did the skin there feel colder? "Edge, hon."

"Huh. So you can do it, but… It's not automatic?" Max theorised quickly. "You have to choose to do it?" The sword nodded in mid-air, smiling as he saw his Trainer understand. "And it only works on humans?" Another nod. "Huh. Wonder why."

"Told you."

"Eh." Max shrugged as he heard Danny walk up. "Been attacked too much to be surprised, and I know my Pokémon wouldn't hurt me on purpose." He thought for a second. "Maybe if I get possessed, though..."

"Possessed? What are you talking about?"

"Ash stuff," Max replied to Danny, as if it explained everything.

The blank look he got told him it didn't, and they spent the next ten minutes talking about one of the weirder events from Max's travels with Ash.

That was saying something, come to think of it…

 **~~§~~§~~**

"Got everything you need?" Danny asked as he and Max were off to the side in the Pokémon Center they'd been staying in. "Holo Caster all charged too? Even if it's… You know."

Max nodded, remembering the local news of the night before. A boy from Durocor had been presumed kidnapped because his Holo Caster had shut down at the worst time. He had been playing with some of the Pokémon in a park across town and had lost track of the time. He'd come home to police trying to track him down. "It is, just in case xatu drops me off in the middle of nowhere." He tapped the small satchel slung over his shoulder. "Everything's in here. Double-checked." He sent xatu out. "You ready?"

"Tu," the bird intoned gravely, unmoving except his beak.

"See you in a few minutes," Max told Danny, receiving a nod in return. "Whenever you're ready, xatu."

Xatu gathered energy, an almost ethereal glow appearing just before they Teleported out.

The first three locations were previous camping spots in the wild, Max recognising the latter two in the five seconds between blurs, before a fourth 'port dropped Max at the hall that had held the Colomn Showcase a month back. The plaza in front of the hall was filled with what looked to be street performers now, snippets of music and booming voices struggling to make themselves heard best.

Another three Teleports later, Max was in a Lumiose Pokémon Center. One of the six he'd been in anyway. He felt energy gather once again, rolling and churning, but then he saw a very familiar blond-haired teenager turn around, wearing some easy clothing Max remembered seeing him in at some point while they were in Lumiose last May. Max quickly took his hand off xatu, though he felt the energy receding as he did anyway.

Clemont's head reared back when he noticed Max, shocked and surprised, but the Gym Leader soon recovered, stepping forward with a smile on his face. "That's a surprise. What are you doing here?"

They shook hands enthusiastically. "Xatu evolved last week, so we're testing how far he can Teleport." He looked around, hoping to see anything that could indicate the exact location. All of the Lumiose ones looked the same except for really small differences that Max never knew how to spot. "We're seven Teleports in, and…" He looked at his Pokémon. "Xatu seems to be sort of okay. Maybe two Teleports more?"

A sage, but slightly weary, chirp confirmed Max's thoughts. "And where did you come from?"

Max returned xatu, figuring that he was going to stay here for now. "Durocor. Leaving for Dendemille tomorrow. Serena's got a Showcase there." Looked around, seeing that one of the videophones was available. "Sorry, need to call Danny. Tell him where I ended up."

A call was quickly made, and Danny accepted it nigh-instantly, obviously already waiting. Serena was in the background, though she seemed a bit more preoccupied with swablu flying around her head. "I'm guessing it's Lumiose?" Danny said drily, clearly spotting the Gym Leader standing behind Max. "Wasn't expecting to see you today, Clemont."

"I wasn't expecting to have someone Teleport into the lobby either. Contrary to what some people believe, teleportation is pretty rare," Clemont replied cheerfully. "Durocor, huh? That's eighty miles, so about a hundred for all of them?"

"Bit more," Max corrected. "Had to Teleport to places we've been, and we left to Colomn, remember?"

"Make it a hundred and ten on your own." Clemont poked Max in the shoulder, and the younger teenager scooted over to allow the Gym Leader to sit as well. "Probably gets you like forty-five miles with the three of you, and more with practice." Danny's face fell. "You look disappointed."

"He's used to his father's alakazam," Max explained. "Who Teleported us about a hundred miles to the airport before leaving."

"The two of you?"

"And our parents, and Max's sister." Danny tilted his head as swablu landed on his shoulder, chirping and pecking at the screen for a second before Serena took him again. "Still, it's more than we could before. Might be useful in an emergency."

"You can always reach a Pokémon Center with that, as long as you visited one recently. At least, here in Kalos. Might be different in Hoenn."

Danny and Max both rolled their eyes in weird synchronisation. "Just because we don't have laws for it..." Danny said as swablu started pecking at the screen again. "Anyway, I think that swablu's having issues, so maybe talk later?"

Max and Clemont agreed, Max only adding that he'd probably stay in Lumiose for lunch. It was only eleven in the morning, but since he was here anyway… He knew at least two shops nearby that he wanted to visit to see if he could find Serena a present for her birthday. Durocor probably had them too, but Max knew where they were in Lumiose.

Actually, come to think of Serena's birthday… He had an idea. He'd need to check later to see if it was a possibility.

"Sorry about taking over the call," Clemont said as they walked out the Center after dropping xatu off at Nurse Joy's desk. "I sometimes have issues with knowing too much and wanting to show it."

Max waved it off. "Don't sweat it. I've done it a few times to Danny and Serena. What did he call it again..." he trailed off, trying to find the right memory. "Oh, right. The curse of being stupid smart."

Clemont chuckled softly as the automatic door slid open behind them, both teenagers automatically taking a few steps to the side. "Yeah, I've heard the same thing. It kinda drives Bonnie mad at times, so I've been trying to watch it." Another chuckle, this one a bit nervous. "Didn't really work too well just now."

Max decided to switch topics before stuff got too awkward. "How'd you get to forty-five miles? The data I saw said it was about sixty miles for three when it was around a hundred and ten on your own." He fished a folded sheet of paper out of his satchel, quickly opening it and heading down the table. "See?"

Clemont made a motion for the paper, and Max handed it to him, seeing the other bespectacled boy scan the data. "Oh, I see what's wrong," came the exclamation after about ten seconds. "This is a chart for adult men, and you're not an adult. That's a lot of weight less."

Hand met forehead. "And the range drops steeply at first, but it sort of levels out at around four adults. Jirachi, I'm an idiot." He leant against the building wall, realising something else. "And I don't even have my pack here, so I weigh even less."

Another hand met another forehead. "And I can't believe I missed that. So much for scientific rigour…" The Gym Leader did a quick shake of his head, shuffling his trainers on stone. "I'm still pretty sure on the forty-five miles figure, and if you practice, it can be a lot more. It's just going to refine the process; remove the impurities and create the neural pathways needed to be good at it."

"You're not secretly the Psychic-type Gym Leader?" Max wondered after whistling appreciatively. "That sounds like something really type-specific. I've never even heard of it."

"Olympia told me a few weeks back. It's the same idea as practising an attack to get better at it, but what most people don't know is that long range teleportation isn't the same as the Teleports you see in battle." A rowdy group of teenagers about his age exited the Center, talking about something Max really didn't want to hear about right there and then. "If it's short-range, it's based on sight and other senses. If it's long-range, it's based on memory. The better Pokémon remember it, the easier a time they have in getting somewhere."

"So when alakazam brought us to the Professor's laboratory, it was easier for her than for her to drop us in the middle of nowhere?" Max wondered. "Wait, I'm not even sure alakazam had ever been there..." He shook his head. It wasn't important right now. "Why were you talking to her?"

"It was after a battle, in which her xatu Teleported out of every single targeted electrical attack I had luxray throw at it." Just the memory made Clemont sound annoyed. "There are ways around it, like Discharge or stuff, but when your options are so limited, it's hard to win." A clock struck in the distance. "I have a recording of it, actually. You want to see?"

Max blushed as Clemont read him like an open book. If it was something the Psychic-type Gym Leader used, then he wanted to see if he could use it too. It sounded like something that fit with what he liked to do. "If it's not too much trouble..."

"Of course not! Part of my job as a Gym Leader is to help Trainers get better."

"Up to and including showing me private spars?" Max asked, feeling honestly curious about it all. His Dad had always been reticent at letting his children watch the spars with his colleagues, only relenting a few times, and most of those were for Max in the months before leaving home.

"That's not for normal Trainers, no," Clemont said as he stepped out into the sunshine, trusting Max to follow. "But for someone like you, who's stupid smart and taught me a thing or two about how other Gym Leaders do their jobs? Sure." They slipped into an alleyway. "And the great battles. Can't forget those."

Max certainly hadn't. "I only got your badge on a draw rule, you know."

"And when we next met, you immediately showed that you'd learned from the mistakes with bagon. That little dragon is going to be a terror when he evolves into Salamence, you know."

"To my opponents, I'd hope."

"If he stays as clingy as he was back then… You're not exempt."

Hearty laughter echoed around a few of the backstreets in Kalos's capital.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Ash Ketchum, of Pallet Town, Kanto, lifted a brand-new pack with a bit of unease. It wasn't like the pack was too heavy, or the wrong shape for him: he'd picked it out specifically to make sure it was comfortable and durable after the one he had used in Sinnoh and his stay in Hoenn with Drake had ended up too frayed to be safe. He'd used a smaller one while waiting and training in Kanto, since he had been able to stay at Brock's place, then Misty's place, and charizard allowed him to just always be near a Pokémon Center anyway.

But he wasn't going to do that now. It was time to get back to travelling the only way that was right: out on the routes and occasionally dropping by Centers, especially in the warm Kanto summer. Maybe he'd stay inside more in winter, but he'd decide that later. It was months off anyway!

Unsurprisingly, his mother was waiting for him downstairs, looking both happy and somewhat sad at the same time. Now that was something familiar. "Your fifth League challenge. Not a lot of Trainers do that much," she observed as she looked him over. "But you never cared about what others did, now did you?" Ash blushed, and pikachu's static electricity moved in amusement. "At least you're not too old for your mother to give you a hug when you leave, right?"

The embrace was warm, comforting, _right,_ but at the same time, it felt right to stop the hug when he did, too. "Thanks Mum. I'll call you as often as I can."

"Thank you, Ash," his mother said, smiling. Mimey walked up beside her, giving a cheerful wave, one that Ash returned. "One thing you didn't tell me… Where are you going? Kalos, like that boy Max and his friend? Maybe Alola? I hear they have some really strange Pokémon there."

Ash racked his brain. Hadn't he told her? He remembered telling Professor Oak of his plans, and he'd dropped a letter by Lance to tell him for G-men purposes, and he'd talked it over with Misty and Brock one late night on Mount Moon, but he had apparently somehow forgotten his mother. "It's just Kanto, Mum. I kind of want to do it properly this time. Last time it was… A bit chaotic." Not to mention that he remembered getting a few of his badges in really cheap ways.

"From what you've told me over the years, everything ever was chaotic, Ash." His mother gave him a disappointed look, but it didn't last. "It's your journey, and you do it the way you want to. Just don't be a stranger, okay? I know you've got charizard to fly you here, and I'm not above getting Professor Oak to tell you that!"

"I'll try to call, Mum," Ash promised, and pikachu made a sound on his shoulder. "Looks like someone's going to keep me to that, too."

"Chu-hu."

His Mum looked like she wanted to hug him one more time, and he did it for her, the embrace swift and warm. "I'll be going. You keep my Mum safe, okay Mimey?"

"Of course he will," his mother agreed as Ash placed his hand on the doorknob. "Oh, and Ash? Don't forget to change your underwear every day."

Pikachu nearly fell off his shoulder as the mouse shrieked with laughter.

 **~~§~~§~~**

As Alice stepped off the podium at the Celadon City Contest, her right hand holding onto the item in it tightly, she saw Linda run up, moving through the leaving crowds as quickly as she could. She didn't care about bumping into others, and Alice saw a few annoyed looks sent her way, but the Unovan girl didn't care.

It was one of the things Alice liked about the fourteen year old. She did things her way, and she didn't give two ounces of shit about what others thought.

Then Linda reached Alice, and strong arms embraced her tightly, almost squeezing the life out of her. "You did it. That was an amazing Contest all around, and you were so good in the final even if that raichu nearly fried ninjask a few times, but the speed on that Pokémon never stops amazin' me even if I've seen her do it a hundred or a thousand times!"

Linda took a deep breath in, and Alice took the time to tense her arms slightly, which signalled Linda that she should release the newest entrant to the Kanto Grand Festival. "Well, it woulda been different if it'd known Shock Wave, but..." It hadn't, and Alice had been very glad for that. "Feels weird. Got these five a lot faster than the Hoenn lot." Five ribbons in a bit more than six full months. She'd honestly expected to have to enter next year's Grand Festival, and not this year's, when Paul had suggested going here to Kanto.

Her face fell, remembering her brother's frantic attempt at getting eight badges in five months and failing. "Hey," Linda said, pressing two fingers into Alice's nose for a second. "Don't be so glum. Yer brother did what he did, and if he's not here now to celebrate with you that's his problem, and not yours. In fact, I'm thinkin' you shouldn't think about your brother for the rest of the day. How's a visit to the spa sound? I'm sure there's room left, especially when you show that fifth ribbon of yours."

Oh, the spa sounded divine right about now. She'd slept okay last night, but she'd still woken up with a crick in her back somehow. Still… "It's only three. Y'can go to the Gym. Don't think it closes 'til like eight."

"Girl, today is about _you._ The Gym won't leave town tonight, and I've got five badges already and a ton of time to collect them other three," Linda told her. "Remember, the next Indigo League is in February. It's July now, so I've got plenty of time to train and practice and make sure my team's as good as it can be for my second League."

Something just niggled at the edge of Alice's mind. There was something Linda wasn't telling her. "Linda… Remember what we said about secrets..."

The Unovan girl looked… Sad? The mood shift caught Alice a bit off guard. "Been thinkin', though. With Unova free from Team Plasma… It's just..."

One part of Alice was amazed at the motormouth being nearly speechless, but more of her knew what wasn't being said. "Linda… If ya want to go home to Unova, see yer family in a free country, that's fine. No need to stick around just for me."

"But stayin' with you is fun, too, 'n it's just… It's just better," Linda said as she slipped into a stronger Unovan accent, forcing Alice to concentrate a bit more to understand her friend. "Yer brother's right about one thing. Stayin' together's just great for helpin' each other out and things like that." The taller brunette spread her hands, shrugging, but her face told Alice that she was holding onto her emotions tightly. "And now you're in the Grand Festival, 'n I want to see you in that, too. Never been to a Grand Festival before, y'know."

The solution came to Alice suddenly, but as it did, she wondered why she hadn't thought of it the moment Linda mentioned wanting to go to Unova. "How 'bout we go to Unova _after_ the Grand Festival. Y'can show me cool Unova stuff 'n meet up with yer family 'n all that. Y've got the time for it too with yer badges and all. 'specially if y'get the Celadon one too. What was it? Rainbow?"

"But… Unova doesn't have any Contest stuff for you..."

Now it was Alice's turn to press two fingers into Linda's nose to tell the other girl that she was being silly. Luckily, she could still do that without having to stand on tiptoes, though Linda was becoming a lot taller than she was. "Don't care 'bout that. Bein' with a friend's fun, too. More fun than Contest stuff mostly. It's always, 'n Contests are only every other week."

"You'd do that for me? Go there just because I'm going there?"

"Why not?" Alice shrugged before looking around and noticing that they were about the only ones still there. "Y'stopped your journey for me, kinda sorta, so I oughta return the favour a bit, y'know."

"You're the best friend a girl can have," Linda said after a few uncomfortably silent moments, before clearing her throat. "So… Spa?"

That sounded like a good plan.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Name:_ _Olympia_

 _Age:_ _37_

 _Type:_ _Psychic_

 _Location:_ _Anistar_ _City_

 _Signature Pokémon:_ _meowstic, sigilyph_

 _Typical format:_ _2v2 doubles_

 _Information:_ _The enigmatic Anistar Gym Leader and powerful Psychic has one of the shorter tenures in the League, but her alleged ability to see into the future has earned her a reputation as a tough obstacle en-route to the Lumiose Conference. Her speciality and her format revolve around teamwork, with dual Future Sight attacks commonly reported_ _and thought-sharing common for Pokémon and Gym Leader for the higher-tier challenges. For this reason, her Gym's popularity has waned, though her rejection rate is actually lower than many Gym Leaders often deemed easier targets._

From: Poképedia's Kalos Gym Leader Profiles

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The official Kalos map (as per Bulbapedia) has Anistar on the same body of water as the river you cross going into Frost Cavern, but then Gloire City is either seaside or on a really big lake, and that's supposed to be between Couriway and Snowbelle, which doesn't make sense at all if you keep that map in your head. I've reshuffled the geography slightly to let it actually make sense. 


	23. Unexpected Reunion

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 23: Unexpected Reunion**

He needed to get away from everything, Max realised after lunch on July 8th. The morning sparring session – which Max had started with before Danny and Serena had had breakfast and only ended when nearly all of his Pokémon were so tired they needed a few hours of rest – had been sufficient to keep his mind busy, but once that had gone, so had the good mood in the camp. He'd snapped at the others three times in the last two hours, and a familiar burn was still simmering around his midriff.

It wasn't any fault of his friends, Max knew, and they'd both been very forgiving about Max snapping at them, but he knew there were limits. He really didn't want a repeat of late February.

He rose from his lying position in the grass, causing Serena to look over, but he shook his head before diving into his pack, easily finding the things he was looking for. Food, human and Pokémon, and water to take with him, and a small case with one of his most important possessions.

Xatu was sent out wordlessly, prompting Danny to look up from where he was lazing in the shadows of the trees. For a fleeting second, Max thought the older teen was going to say something, ask where he was going, but then his friend gave a tiny shake of his head, making a shooing motion.

Blessing received, Max wasted no time in touching his hand to xatu's shoulder, and the world blurred in an instant.

He wasn't expecting the lake. Hell, he hadn't even known there was a lake nearby, but he did know xatu had flown around a while before dinner last night. That meant he was probably only a mile or so away from the others, but it was more than enough distance. He could look it up, but it didn't really matter.

The side of the lake Max was on had a wooden walkway stretching about ten feet into the lake, with an occasional ladder into the water, not unlike what you saw at a swimming pool, and he sat down at the edge before taking his shoes and socks off to let his feet dangle in the lukewarm water. below. It was warmer than Max expected, but at least the wood wasn't scorching hot. Probably because of the cloud cover overhead: it wasn't full, but there were enough of them in the air that Max suspected they'd see rain before the day was over. Probably not for long, but long enough.

Luckily, xatu was capable of shielding them from the rain. Natu hadn't been able to, probably because he didn't know Light Screen as well as baltoy and espurr did, but xatu was able of substituting skill for raw psionic power. That wouldn't help in learning the defensive move, but it sure did work for keeping them dry.

He sent out all of his remaining Pokémon, not needing to look around to know that some of them were still tired, but doing it anyway. Poliwhirl immediately jumped in the water, floating on her back near Max's feet as he snapped his fingers to get their attention. "I know you're all pretty tired, but… I just wanted to say I'm sorry for pushing you so hard earlier," Max said softly. "I know I shouldn't have, but..."

A green hand pressed against his lips, silencing him, and Max felt sceptile's tail branches scrape by his side. "Tile. Tile-scep," his starter told him, sounding… disapproving? The realisation stung sharply. "Scep. Tile-scep-scep," he added as the hand at Max's mouth dropped to his lap, where the ralts figurine was resting against his thigh. "Tile."

"Fairy. Fai-cle-fai!" his Fairy-type added, the tone alone causing his cheeks to heat up more. "Clefairy. Cle. Fairy."

Four more Pokémon agreed with what clefairy had said: a high-pitched buzz; a solemn exclamation; a reproachful half-roar; a muted cheerful cry near his feet. Max felt a push against his right arm; clefairy pushing it up, and Max obliged, only for sceptile to grab the figurine and drop it in the open palm. "Tile."

His Pokémon moved, and Max felt four stubby arms hug him from both sides, while poliwhirl swam up to his feet, touching her back to the left one. At the same time, ninjask flew over him, hovering about four feet in front of him, and a hand and a wing grasped his shoulders. "Wha..."

And then he realised. The disapproval hadn't been because he had pushed them too hard. They had disapproved of his apology. They understood what day it was; why Max wasn't in the best mood.

He felt the lump in his throat appear, and a deliberate swallow did little to remove it. "Thank you..." he croaked out. "You're the best."

Max wasn't sure how long they were there; poliwhirl floating around his feet, ninjask on the wood near his knees; bagon and clefairy leaning into opposite sides, sceptile sitting almost perpendicular to him, shoulder to shoulder; xatu just to his left, and the ralts figurine lying in his lap. If there were wild Pokémon nearby, they didn't show up, and if a human saw them, they didn't speak up. Perfect shared solitude.

For some time.

Sceptile was the first to move, getting up for some reason, tail scratching along the back of Max's shirt. Ninjask soon took to the air as well, and both of the Pokémon to his sides heaved themselves out of that position, though he didn't hear or feel any attacks being readied. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't any danger, and so Max only turned his head instead of getting his feet out of the water.

It took him a moment to realise that he'd put his glasses in the collar of his shirt at some point, but he still saw a figure that he recognised. The cape was missing, but there was only one person he knew who wore that dark blue and had that reddish hair. "Max Maple," the man said by way of greeting. "Just the one I was looking for." A world coming into focus allowed Max to see the raised eyebrow. "My apologies for dropping by on this day in particular. It is not ideal, but it's the only day that works."

Max lifted his feet out of the water; the wet and cold almost painful against the sun-drenched wood of the walkway, and he slipped around sceptile, which caused his starter to relax a bit. "You have your reasons, I think. I can manage."

It came out colder than he wanted to, but Lance paid it no heed, instead smiling as he spotted something. "Come. Let's sit down. No need to stand here awkwardly." The Grand Champion added deed to word as he sat down in lotus position in a single fluid motion, followed by a single tap on a pokéball on the right side of his belt. A kingdra erupted into the water. "Your Pokémon are very attuned to you, and above all protective."

"Huh?" Max wondered as he sat down again, his ankles resting on the edge of the walkway.

"All of them stood down without you needing to say anything, just by taking a step past your sceptile, but even so, some of them are still ready to send an attack my way if I do something hostile." The thirty-year-old – Max's mind supplying that the man had had a birthday a month before – tilted his head, smiling a smile that didn't feel fully right. "Part of me approves of that caution, and another part of me is sad for it; that someone your age _needs_ that. It certainly wasn't my intention when I put the idea forward near the end of last year." Fingers rapped against the wood. "But I don't think that's important right now. What is, is what happened in Durocor."

"I'm guessing you haven't read the letter, if you're here in Kalos?" Max said, to a nod. He took a deep breath in and prepared to face the music. "It all started with a letter I received the morning before, written by one of the Team Rocket members who used to chase Ash around for his pikachu." Eyes widened, and Max pressed on quickly, before Lance could interrupt. "He threatened to do things to Danny and Serena if I didn't go somewhere or told others.."

"So you went there, following… James, was it? Scion of an old money family in Kanto."

Max was unsurprised Lance knew name or background. "We went to a fancy restaurant, had lunch there, and James told me to try and stop them, or else." Kingdra and poliwhirl splashed in the water, while Lance kept silent. "It was weird. He was civil, but he did know of the two other times we had a Team Flare run-in."

"Did he give a reason?"

"Something about his higher-ups and stuff reminding them of Hoenn, only now it's Mega Stones instead of ancient Pokémon." Max sank into thought for a second. "He was surprisingly open about everything. He could've just blackmailed me with Danny and Serena, but he told me a lot more."

"I'd assume he still sees you as the kid tagging along with Ash at some level. You're not important enough, but you know them nevertheless. If they'd known about, well… Us…" Lance trailed off, and Max understood the point he was making. "And it will cost them. Now, the museum battle itself. Tell me."

Retelling everything that had happened in the museum took longer than the fight itself had, Max thought. Lance interrupted him constantly, asking questions about tactics or the strengths and weaknesses of the Pokémon involved, for both them and Team Flare, and more than once, he supplied alternate strategies, though he prefaced them by saying that Max and Danny not thinking of these was perfectly fine.

Max guessed being a Grand Champion meant you had to have an amazing grasp of strategy and tactics, and he committed the tips to memory as best he could. Surprisingly, he had seemed impressed with the Spikes shower they had come up with.

Eventually, the tale ended, as did Max's supply of water. "I think," Lance started cautiously, "that the outcome was as good as it could be. The injuries were relatively minor, the damage to the building was limited, and only three stolen Mega Stones is about as good a result as I could expect of any of my lower level operatives. Well done indeed." The blush that appeared made Lance chuckle. "Now, I'd tell you to try and stay away from Team Flare, but I think both of us know that _that_ isn't going to happen." A pair of raised fingers told Max to keep silent. "It is not in your nature to do that, and you have more reason than a lot of people to despise villainous organisations."

"So… What should I do then?"

"Use your brain and your Pokémon, and don't be afraid to play dirty. Not hurt on purpose," Lance clarified before Max could interject. "But if there's a chance of hindering someone from Team Flare, consider using it. Your friend has a loudred to deafen them, your xatu might be able to Teleport someone out of the fight… Reuse that Spikes ambush if there's a location that works with it… Stuff like that. If and when power does not suffice, any good Trainer should have tools in their kit to work around the issue. In fact, I recall your friend actually using his whismur for that."

Oh, right. Danny's solution that had led to Archie's capture. Max nodded. He could do that.

Lance rose, taking two pokéballs from his belt. The first returned kingdra, while the second sent out one of his iconic dragonites. Max rose as well, though he did not return any of his Pokémon. "Now, one last thing," Lance said as he took something from his trouser pocket. "Memorise the number on this note and burn it. It's a Holo Caster number to a high-ranking official at the International Police, partially in charge of investigating the Team Flare situation. If you find yourself in another fight with Team Flare, try to call him if at all possible. We might actually capture more than one of them..."

 _Shit._ That was what he had forgotten. "The Holo Caster is compromised," Max said bluntly as dragonite lowered himself to allow his Trainer to get on his back. Lance looked at him weirdly. "That was one of the things James also told me. Apparently some operations went wrong because of it?"

"He told you that?"

"I can read between the lines. I'm thirteen, not stupid."

"If the Holo Caster is compromised… That might actually be a great help in finding out who is behind it all." Lance smiled broadly. "Well, Max, I can't honestly say I was expecting this much information from our talk, and that's coming from the one who convinced Reginald to give you two a chance." He climbed onto dragonite, adjusting his position slightly while keeping an eye on Max. "Once more, I'm sorry I had to come here today. I know you'd rather have done other things with your time, but…"

Max half-opened his right hand, the figurine almost clammy against his skin. "It's okay. Kept me from moping. Danny hates that."

"With good reason, I am certain. Until next time, Max Maple."

Max's farewell was drowned out by the dragonite shooting upwards, going faster than Max had ever seen a Pokémon with rider go. It was barely twenty seconds before there was no sign at all of the Dragon-type in the air, and all Max knew was that he went west and slightly south, judging by the keychain compass.

"Xatu? I think it's time to go back now."

He had more to tell.

 **~~§~~§~~**

It took Serena a minute to recover from the third surprise Max dropped on her. First there was the raid that made them find Max's ralts again, but he and Danny had hinted at that already, so Serena was ready for it. Then Max casually told her that gardevoir, kirlia, and ralts lived together in groups, which was just cool to know about.

And then he told her that they had offered him an Egg, and he had turned it down. He'd stopped there, waiting for her to recover, but Serena suspected there was more to it than that. The glint in his eyes told her as much. "Right. You didn't accept. Knowing you, you had a reason for that."

The explanation made a lot of sense. She knew that she'd chosen fennekin because the little Fire-type had been just right around her when she had selected her Pokémon. She still couldn't really explain the exact process, but there had been a click from the first moment; one she didn't have with the chespin or the froakie. Max's ralts had probably been the same, which made the loss all the sadder. "Would you have accepted the Egg?"

"Probably not," Serena admitted. She curled a lock of her hair around her fingers. "I don't think it'd feel right to do. It wouldn't be the same ralts."

Max nodded, a broad grin very out of place after what they'd talked about. "That's what I said. At the same time..." he added, the grin vanishing instantly, "I wonder if I should've accepted. Is that a better way of keeping ralts's memory alive?"

"You think too much, Max," Serena said bluntly. "Weren't you the one telling me that you sometimes just need to go for something in a battle? Decide, don't overthink? Well, it applies here too!"

"He's not going to listen to that," Danny said from behind Serena, and her head turned towards him before she even knew what she was doing, and then she turned away as her face burned. "Trust me, I've told him a hundred times already. No need for you to join in too."

"We've been over this..." Max said in a long-suffering voice, the eyes rolling almost audible. "Is that why you went and had a swim in the lake? Not feeling like throwing yourself at a brick wall?"

Serena glanced back at the other teen from the corner of her eyes. "At least he admits he's stubborn," Danny said in a stage-whisper before he threw a shirt over his head. "Anyway… Kinda? I wanted to clean up. You telling Serena about last year was as good a time as any. I was there, you know."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Two days after Serena had turned thirteen, they were finally ready to celebrate her birthday. They had arrived in Dendemille very late the night before after walking nearly seventeen miles in a day, which had made Danny and Serena both crash into bed the moment they were led into their room.

Max was not surprised, but slightly annoyed, to find that sleep came a bit harder for him and that he still woke up two hours before either of them stirred. Trying to turn around and sleep again hadn't worked for over a month, so he had left, quiet as a mouse, using the time to groom manectric and espurr.

And give a pre-teen girl some tips on how to do the same with her young shinx. He had wondered where her parents were in all this, but then she'd admitted that they had given her shinx as a test to see if she could care for a pet, and that made him understand why she hadn't asked them to help her. Max would have been mortified to do that, and the girl was too, probably.

But now they were here, with cake and cookies for lunch – not baked by either him or Danny, but Serena had forgiven them for not wanting to spend time in the kitchen while it was warm enough outside that anything metal was painful to touch. "Well, Serena. Whose present first?" Max asked after the traditional – and horrible – rendition of Happy Birthday. He couldn't carry a tune in the proverbial bucket, and Danny's voice sort of half-broke at one point, which had caused his singing to go even further off-key.

"Danny's," Serena replied. "You probably got me something boring, so let's get the good stuff out of the way first."

"Said it before, Max. She has your number," Danny said as he produced a wrapped box from his pack. "I think these are going to be useful for you."

It was a small Trainer's grooming kit, with two brushes – one coarse, one fine – and some shampoo, perfume, stuff like that. "I saw that the brush you use for braixen and zorua is a bit ragged, so… Hopefully this'll keep you for a while."

"I'll certainly use all of this!" Serena said as she put everything on the bed behind her. It was less than Max expected for a box that size, but a quick look at the plastic revealed that everything had been lying on and in foam. "Useful! Thanks!"

"My turn," Max said, lobbing his own present over. Serena caught it without blinking an eye. "Good catch."

Max had found a gift he hadn't been looking for exactly. He'd been looking for a necklace of some kind, something Serena could wear in Showcases and just daily life, after getting a bit of advice from May. She'd also suggested a hat, but after taking several steps into a hat boutique and seeing the sheer amount of headwear there, Max had just left that as the last thing to visit in Lumiose. A smaller shop off of Vernal Avenue had caught his eye, and he'd bought a pair of cherubi-shaped earrings there.

Serena had opened his gift, and… She was looking at him pretty strangely. Like she didn't know what to say. "Do you like them?"

"Yeah, but..." Serena said, taking the earrings out of the box before putting it away. "Max… Do you… Do you _like_ me?"

He caught the emphasis, and soon the blushes on both their faces mirrored each other. Probably. "Not like that!"

"Then why'd you give me earrings? It's… They'reusuallyboyfriendgifts."

Oh. _Oh._

Danny crowed with laughter, making Max blush even more. "Max and Serena, sit—OW!"

Because Danny was still standing close to Serena, the newly official teenager had been able to reach over and pinch his arm with her nails, and Max knew all too well she kept them sharp. "Max?"

"I, uh… I didn't know that. And I'm only thirteen! Way too young to think about that."

"So are Keith and Ja… Shutting up now," Danny said as Serena wiggled her fingers.

Max heard rather than saw Serena take a deep breath. "Well… It's still a cool gift. Not at all boring." She checked the small box it had come in. "Lumiose, huh. You picked it up last week? So that's why you were so late."

"I did tell you I had gone shopping," Max reminded her, pulling at the shirt he was wearing; the same shirt he had bought: dark green with a cool silver eternity symbol. "Never told you the whole truth. Do you forgive me for that?"

"I think I can."

Max's Holo Caster went off. "Excuse me," he said, leaving the room. He was a bit surprised to hear the woman at the other end, but she had told him it would be any time between noon and three. He popped his head back in. "I'm going to need to make a call real quick. Don't eat my cake."

Five minutes later, xatu reappeared in the lobby, looking winded, but not exhausted, while his passenger took a step forward to steady herself. "That's a new experience for me. Certainly faster than a car, and with less of the parking problems too," Grace said as she looked around. "It never ceases to amuse me that all the Pokémon Centers are so similar inside. Is it the same in Hoenn?"

"They don't look the same as this, but most of the time, yeah," Max said before handing Nurse Joy xatu's pokéball. Max had informed her of his plan before, and the nurse had promised to get xatu in shape for a return Teleport as soon as she could. "You use cars to get around, then? For your racing tutoring, I mean."

The door to the hallway was open, and Max heard something in Grace's backpack clanging against another item as they entered it. "Either I take a long-distance cab or they take care of transportation for me. I wouldn't have gone to Laverre normally, but the organiser's an old friend of mine. It's the reason I could come so soon. She remembered it was Serena's birthday, and when I told her your idea, she made sure I wouldn't have to deal with everything after the workshop was over."

"That's kind of her," Max said as Serena's laugh came through the door. He dreaded to think which embarrassing story of him Danny had shared this time. "And I'm back, and I brought someone else."

"Huh, wha… Mum!" Serena jumped to her feet, nearly barrelling Max over as she jumped into a hug with her mother. The two seemed to do their best to crack a rib or two. "How did you know? And when did you two talk about this?"

"You did make that comment two weeks back," Max reminded her, before any remaining breath was driven out of his body by a fierce hug. "And the idea just came to me last week."

"Max called me from Lumiose," Grace added, sending a fletchling out. The small bird tittered before settling on Serena's shoulder. "And how could I refuse an offer to share in the day that my daughter celebrates turning thirteen. If you want me to."

"Of course!"

They spent most of the early afternoon eating cake, talking, and just having a good time. Grace commented on the earrings, raising an eyebrow that made Max blush fiercely before he explained that he hadn't known, honestly, but otherwise, it was just like the other two birthdays, except with Serena's Mum also there.

Then Grace announced that she knew there was a cinema nearby, and a new romantic comedy to watch, and if Serena wanted to go there.

She said yes, but immediately added that she wouldn't blame Danny or Max if they didn't want to.

Three hours later, Max and Danny met them at a local restaurant; one a lot less fancy than the one James had taken him to, though the food was just as tasty there. From what Max caught, the film had been good, but not as good as the reviews had led Grace to believe, but most of the dinner was spent talking about what each of them did with Pokémon: racing, battling, performing. "Have you thought about where to go when you're done with the Lumiose Conference?" Grace asked after they'd ordered dessert.

Max shook his head. "Not really. I have friends in Kanto, and I was going to go there until I heard about Kalos, but..." he trailed off, shrugging. "Even Unova is an option again if they get their League up and running again."

"It is a few months away for you," Grace agreed amicably. "And what about you, Danny? Still going to follow Max around? Serena told me you did that for Kalos."

"Probably," was the lazy reply, inwardly causing Max to smile at how _full_ Danny sounded. Someone had eaten too much. "He has good ideas most of the time. Makes my life easy, and I learn lots. Might come in useful later in life."

"How so?"

"It is… Kind of expected that I'll go to university and eventually take over for my uncle," Danny said, his chair scraping against the floor as he adjusted it just a bit. Any semblance of laziness had vanished as well. "That's basically what my uncle did for grandpa, and grandpa for great-grandpa, and I think he took over from his brother..."

"I remember Professor Birch and your Dad saying that you didn't have to do that," Max replied, frowning. "But yeah, expectations do kind of suck. At least Gym Leader stuff isn't normally hereditary. Not a word, Danny."

"You can't stop me," Danny replied sing-song, his tone making it very clear he enjoyed the teasing. "People expect Max to do all sorts of things because he's a Gym Leader kid. I found this website last week, and it had this entire write-up of the Ever Grande Conference. He was mentioned with picture and all. It's sort of ridiculous on the face of it, but I know Max can do it."

"Do what?"

"Become a Champion."

Curse whatever etiquette said you couldn't stuff a sock in someone's mouth over dinner. "I just want to get better, fight strong Trainers, and then we'll see if I have it in me to challenge the best," he told both Kalosians – Serena was listening intently. "I'm just thirteen. Talking about Champion stuff is years off."

"I certainly didn't know what I wanted to do in the future when I was your age," Grace agreed. "But Champion… That's a lofty claim. How do you even do that in Hoenn?"

"Challenge the Elite Four – you need an invitation or a top something League result for that – and then beat them all, and the Grand Champion at the end." Max had looked up the exact manner after Steven Stone had ascended to his position. "The Elite Four's order is fixed, but they can use any Pokémon or format that they want to use. The Grand Champion fight is six on six, of course."

Grace hummed in agreement. "Similar, yet distinct. If I remember correctly, format and the teams are fixed for the Elite Four, and the order is variable here in Kalos."

Then, dessert appeared, and all talk of Leagues and Champions and stuff vanished in the excellent parfaits.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Serena gave herself one last look in the full-body mirror, and despite the dress feeling like it should be wrongly fitted, she couldn't detect any sign of it actually slipping or hiking where it shouldn't. The grey material was thinner than it looked, but it felt plenty warm on the inside, and the intentional creases made the dress and Serena look much fuller.

Still, she had to admit it suited her, so at least she wouldn't have to blame Danny for that. As part of the Dendemille Styling Theme Performance, all contestants had been allowed a thirty minute search of the very extensive wardrobe that was available for them. Danny had gone with Serena – which had caused a weird look or two, but honestly, it wasn't even like he was the only boy there. He'd spotted the dress after ten minutes, and after five more minutes of explaining something called period clothing, she'd accepted his idea. Zorua was easily incorporated as well, and a small purse finished the look.

Honestly, the most difficult part was getting the snobbish voice just right, but Danny's tip of acting like you were better than everyone else – "Just imagine you're telling us off for being boys" – had been a great help.

She exited the dressing room, spotting two more girls waiting for their turn; the girls who she'd be competing with. One, a brown-skinned friendly girl who looked like she might be Alolan, was wearing a snug tuxedo, and Serena also saw a small whip on the nearby bench. That would probably be some kind of taming act, based on what she saw. The other girl had opted for a white summer dress with a blue fleur-de-lis pattern and a flower wreath sitting on her blonde hair, leading Serena to suspect some kind of summery dance.

They were the penultimate group to go up, and Serena was last. First came an Alolan dance – she thought – with an oricorio, but the purple bird and the summer dress just didn't work well together in colour and execution. The taming act was better, involving a luxio with good-looking Swift-stars and a mewl cuter than the evolved Pokémon had any right of being.

Though, the Swift had been kind of slow in forming, and it only looked good. No telling if it was actually good.

Serena shook her head. Clearly she'd been hanging around with Max for too long if she was thinking about Pokémon attacks that way.

Then it was her turn, and she sent zorua out, the Dark-type immediately blurring and taking the form of a mightyena. Together, they walked onto the podium, Serena bowing to the audience.

As planned, mightyena had vanished from her side, instead sniffing enthusiastically around the stage. "Mightyena, here," Serena said, rolling the r exaggeratedly. The Dark-type didn't listen. "Come here, you disobedient knave."

A scoff told Serena exactly what the canine thought of that idea, and he walked away, preferring to look at the curtains hanging from rods above. He gently bit down on the curtain, but spit the textile out, barking and fake-sneezing.

Time for the second part. "Mightyena?" Serena said in a hopefully falsely sweet voice, "I have got a succulent and positively scrumptious treat for you."

Regurgitating the dictionary didn't do anything, and now he was sniffing around the judge desks. Serena saw the local Nurse Joy look around at the mightyena. She nodded once, and smiled gently.

"Mightyena. Get over here or you shan't have your treat!" Serena said, stomping her foot on the floor. Ears perked up, but the resolute turn away was just as planned, and Serena heard a few chuckles in the front rows.

She had rehearsed another line, but a glance at the clock showed that there were only twenty seconds left on her Performance, and so she went for the finishing touch. She took a deep breath in. "Oi, you mangy dog. I got a bone for ya and if ya don't want it, I'm gonna throw it away!" she half-yelled in as vulgar an accent as she could muster.

And of course, now the mightyena turned around, speeding at her and jumping into her arms and starting to lick her. The licks were real, but thankfully, zorua had made sure his weight was still close to his own. She could catch him, but a real mightyena would have bowled her over. The extra few pounds over zorua's regular weight didn't matter, though.

There was applause, and it increased when the Dark-type shrunk back down to his real form. Once it died, the two others stepped onto the podium, and they all waited for the votes to come in.

It was fairly close, but she did edge out the tamer act, and she accepted the congratulations - and the compliments on a well-trained zorua – gracefully. She hoped.

Luckily, there was about an hour before the final round was going to start, and she was going to need all the time she could get with what she had planned, courtesy of what she herself had found in the wardrobe before.

 **~~§~~§~~**

"Do you know exactly what she's planning with the Magical Leaves?" Max asked Danny as they watched the third of six Performers do her thing, which was apparently a kind of circus act involving herself and her electrode. Max wasn't sold, though he had to commend her for being able to stand on a rolling ball. "I mean, we saw the idea, but she was really enthusiastic after seeing what they had available here."

"Don't look at me. I just found the last dress." The Performer jumped off the Electric-type, wincing as she landed. Max had seen why: her foot had folded under her ankle. Not fully, but enough to hurt. "First one's still the best up until now."

"Agreed." Sure, an energetic dance was kind of cliché, but it had been done well, and the wingull and vivilion had added a cool Mist and Sunny Day combination, giving the impression of an early morning ritual rather than a dance. "Serena can probably do better."

Danny agreed, though he didn't do more than grunt his agreement because the announcer was introducing Serena.

Max immediately recognised where she was going with her outfit, courtesy of a programme he had seen her watch while they were in Durocor. Serena was wearing a pure white jacket, with a red skirt, and a circlet of yellow flowers sat on her hair. It looked like there was a tiny bit of pale make-up on her face too. She carried something in her left hand, while zorua and cherubi with her as well: the Grass-type sitting on her right shoulder, and the Dark-type walking by her right foot.

A small table had been set down, a bowl atop it. Serena knelt before it, muttering a prayer under her breath, before retrieving the length of wood she had put on the floor. There was something on the end – paper or something – and when she waved it over the bowl, a careful burst of Magical Leaf shot upwards from the stick.

She exchanged the wand for the bowl, slowly and gracefully walking, nearly gliding, over to the leftmost edge of the stage. Another muttered prayer, and she reached into the bowl, gently grabbing something and then throwing it in the air.

And more leaves shot up, this time from her hand, pink and white intermingling. A self-satisfied nod, and she moved to the other end of the stage, walking a tad faster now, though she still kept her composure. A curt bow to the judges preceded her second blessing, and this time, Max focused on figuring out the Magical Leaf itself. He knew how the trick of making it appear like it was coming from somewhere else was done, but illusions could be caught.

Sadly, he was at too great a distance, and after a third blessing over the ritual table, the Performance ended with a curtsey and applause that was at odds with the entire Performance, loud as it was. For her part, Serena kept playing the demure shrine maiden, simply accepting what was coming her way with the faintest of smiles on her red lips.

The two following her were okay, Max supposed, but if Serena hadn't participated, his vote would have gone to the first contestant still. As it was, he felt obliged to vote for Serena, though he had liked the imitation of a Johtoan blessing ceremony a lot; it was different from what was normal in Showcases and it worked extremely well with the Magical Leaves that she had been practising. The original plan had been something like the Petal Dance routine that Shauna had won with in Cyllage, but Max liked this better.

The audience liked it too, and Serena won her second Princess Key in a comfortable plurality victory.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Zorua and zoroark's illusions are unique in the Pokémon world in being able to remain undetectable to many of our senses on casual inspection, even for inexperienced illusionists, and without the use of mind-altering phenomena like stantler do. Sight is the bread and butter of illusions, and zorua are also capable of adjusting their weight. An adept zorua can look like a steelix, but weigh only the normal weight that its original form does. Sound is harder to imitate for them, though this mostly extends to the cries themselves: grunts and whines and similar effects are easier to imitate. Lastly, truly masterful illusionists can also mask their smell to fool human and Pokémon noses. Only zoroark have been reported to have reached this level of sophistication, however._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Buying the right birthday presents is hard sometimes, okay. Also a second Key for Serena. Good chapter for her.


	24. Summer Events

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 24:** **Summer Events**

For a place only twenty miles away from Dendemille, which was a normal Kalosian town with normal weather, the upper end of an unnumbered Route and the nearby Frost Cavern were surprisingly cold. Where they were, standing on the bridge that eventually led into Sunshine Lake, it was probably just above freezing. It was certainly cold enough for Danny to see his breath come out in wispy clouds. He was wearing two layers of long-sleeved shirts because his winter clothing had been sent to Hoenn after their stay in Lumiose in May, and thank arceus that there was a rental service for warm overcoats in Dendemille.

It didn't make any natural sense for it to be this cold, this time of year, in this hemisphere, this locally. A Pokémon had to be responsible, and given the extremely local and powerful effects, they could probably make a good guess which.

Danny hoped it was articuno, and that the majestic Ice-type allowed itself to be seen. Max had warned them about the option of it being a kyurem, but that was less likely, he had admitted as well. The Legendary Birds were fairly common for Legendaries and they knew there was a zapdos in Kalos too. It made sense for articuno and moltres to be hanging around the region as well.

"Your uncle would love this place," Max said as he caught up with them, having been on the south side of the bridge before then to look at something he'd spotted. "There's Pokémon everywhere. I saw a couple of cryogonal float over the water. I think I got a picture." He handed the camera back to Danny. "Great that we already found that bergmite he was asking for."

"How does that even work?" Serena wondered, shivering in the cold and bringing a hand to her previously injured knee. "Isn't Hoenn sub-tropical? How would it survive there?"

"A refrigerated warehouse, a deal with the local Ice-type Gym, and lots of staying in pokéballs," Danny answered. Froslass worked the same way, though snorunt had been surprisingly adept at dealing with warmer weather. "Ice-types aren't completely unknown in Hoenn, y'know. We even have an Ice-type Elite Four member."

"It's still only two families that are Hoenn-native," Max said. "One of them is also Water-typed, so they just use that to stay cold." Danny saw a grin appear. "And somehow, despite how few Ice-types we have, both you and Ash got one of them. What are the odds."

"We just have good taste. That's all."

"Froslass are pretty cool Pokémon," Max agreed, before he froze as he realised what he had done. "Didn't even realise that one."

"I see what you did there," Danny said, smirking before laughing when he saw Max's grimace. "You were asking for that." He turned away, looking at the Frost Cavern up ahead. "So. Ready to find ourselves an articuno?" he asked as he released froslass.

The walk up to the Frost Cavern proper came with palpably colder air; the temperature dropping to levels that did _not_ belong anywhere but winter – and even then it was rare for it to drop below freezing back in Petalburg. There was no snow on the ground, though, but Danny just knew that there'd be feet-high mountains of snow here come actual winter.

The Pokémon around were curious but cautious. Danny saw a few of them look at them from afar: bergmite and snover prominent, and even a cubchoo that he pointed out to Serena rather quickly, only for the small bear to vanish before Serena could try and capture it.

Teenager or not, Serena did like cute Pokémon, and cubchoo certainly qualified for that. It was one of the few Pokémon he had ever heard her about wanting to catch, though she knew that the Chill Pokémon was very rare outside of Unova.

Strangely, teddiursa didn't get the same response from her.

Danny, for his part, didn't really have a Pokémon he wanted to catch here, he mused as they walked up to one of the entrances to the tunnel complex that was Frost Cavern. He had the one Ice-type in froslass, and he'd heard of haunter also inhabiting the area, he had two Ghost-types already as well, and he was perfectly fine with those. He kind of wanted a Fire-type, but litleo and pyroar didn't do it for him, and growlithe was just… Easy. He could have a growlithe at any point if he asked his grandparents.

As they entered the caves, Max switched a torch on to allow them to see. He immediately pointed it down as the light reflected off of everything in the vicinity, but even in the reduced light, it was a beautiful sight. Walls so clear they could serve as cold mirrors; half-frozen soil underneath, crisp and fresh air cleaning his lungs… There was something about this place that just made Danny like it.

They came to a fork. "Up, I think?" Max asked, shining light down both paths, but not seeing too much thanks to twists and turns. "They live high up, so..."

As for Max… Danny didn't know. Once, he had thought that his friend would've gone for all the Pokémon he met on his journey with Ash: mightyena, shuppet, ralts, shroomish were the ones he remembered, but ever since catching his faithful Electric canine and then the raid, there hadn't really been any Pokémon Max really wanted. Bagon had been luck, clefairy and poliwag had wanted to join them, vulpix was forced on him… Natu counted for wanting – Danny wasn't sure how he had forgotten that – and the Kalos catches were just opportunity.

His body met sudden resistance, and both Danny and Max nearly fell down because of it. The wall provided cold but needed support. "Hey. Why'd you stop?"

"Why did you walk into me?"Max countered as he shook his head. "There was something flickering up ahead. It looked… Never mind."

"Are you sure it wasn't just your glasses fogging up?" Danny wondered as he scratched an itch on his head, glad for his thin gloves. "It's cold in here."

"I saw it too," Serena said from behind them. She pointed at something above them. "Up there, near that weird patch of rock, right?"

Danny looked up, but saw nothing. "Maybe just a haunter fading out?"

"Didn't look like it."

The path led upwards slowly but steadily, and twice they had to use xatu to bypass an icy slope, but otherwise, it was smooth walking. There weren't any Pokémon in this area of the caves, which was sort of strange, but they had been cautious before.

Then Max stopped dead in his tracks. The reason became apparently rather quickly, and Danny froze as well. Two mamoswine looking at them like they were very unwelcome guests was enough to make anyone stop. "Max?" Danny said as he saw one of them inhale.

"Xatu, get us out!"

The Blizzard didn't quite hit them in full, but the chill certainly came along as they were suddenly dumped onto sun-covered ground. All of them lost their balance, xatu included, thanks to the hurried Teleport, but at least they weren't human icicles. Danny could do without his foot folded underneath him like that, though. "Everyone okay?"

Serena grunted agreement as she heaved herself into a sitting position, and Danny followed suit, wriggling his ankle to shake the pain off. Max was already on his feet somehow, looking around before extending a hand to Serena to help her up. "Well, that was the wrong path. Those mamoswine weren't happy with us."

"No kidding." Danny saw Max hop on top of one of the rocks nearby, only to jump off immediately when part of it crumbled underneath. "So… What now? Head back to the Center? How?"

Serena muttered agreement, but Max gave a quick shake of his head before going back to study their surroundings again. "We can go back with xatu, but I just want to have a look around. See if I can't find a Pokémon."

Oh? Did Danny's ears deceive him? After his musing inside, now was the time Max wanted to check for a Pokémon? "Not those mamoswine, I hope."

The fact that Max's reply wasn't outright negative worried Danny a tiny bit. He didn't think his friend would go after the mamoswine, but he had been surprised before. "Serena? Do you have a smelly Poké Puff on you?"

"They don't stink, but I do have some," Serena answered as she took a zip-lock bag from her borrowed coat, producing one of the two treats inside. She'd baked those the night before, Danny remembered – a dozen and a half more were in similar bags in their main packs. "You want to lure a Pokémon?"

"A Pokémon that relies on smell over sight or sound," Max confirmed as he took the green-and-yellow treat, walking to an open area about sixty feet away before placing it on the ground. "Now we…"

Danny guessed he knew how that sentence would have finished, except for the fact that a swinub was already eating. To his surprise, Max stepped forward, sending honedge out and ordering the ghost to weaken it.

A few minutes later, Max had his own Ice-type. Honedge was just too fast for it, and the Powder Snow and Icy Wind attacks were easily weathered. Only the Mist had been a bit of a surprise, but that was to try and get away, and Max didn't let that happen. "Why swinub?" Serena asked as she fed the other Poké Puff to xatu. The bird looked like he was enjoying it, just based on the cooking alone; he had no real preference in flavours. "Mamoswine doesn't look like a Pokémon you'd use. Just too slow for you."

"One, mamoswine's a long way off probably," Max stated. "Swinub's pretty young, I think." When had he realised that? Danny sure hadn't. "Two, I was thinking last week and I realised I don't really have a lot of Pokémon that can just stand up and trade hits. Sceptile's the only one really. Danny has swampert and dusclops and aggron, and even drapion when skorupi evolves." Before the oldest teenager could ask about the _when_ , as opposed to _if,_ Max continued. "And I just like swinub. They're useful too with their noses. I didn't know they lived here, but I'm not going to look a gift Pokémon in the mouth."

Danny remembered that phrase acutely a few hours later, when they were back in Dendemille after two Teleports. The moment Max opened the pokéball with his new Pokémon, the swinub took one look and breathed Powder Snow out, lightly frosting its new Trainers's glasses and hair. Serena gasped, but Max only took his glasses off while holding the small Pokémon in his other hand. "You're feisty, aren't you," he mused. "Want some food?"

The snorts were a clear answer.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The Jeune Tournoi in Lune Town was coming to an end, and so there were quite a few people watching Serena and her opponent fight for whoever was going to end up third. It was two on two, but braixen and dedenne had already been knocked out mutually. Dedenne had gotten the better of Serena's Pokémon, but channelling electricity through burnt cheeks had been too much for the small orange Pokémon. The order of knock-outs did mean Serena had to send her Pokémon out first, though.

Danny took one last look around to see if he could spot Max, but his friend was nowhere to be seen in the blistering July heat. It probably meant he was still battling for his spot in the round of eight in the Vieux Tournoi. He had reached that round himself, but Max was in the bottom half of the schedule while Danny was in the top half. As such, he was done early enough to walk the distance here. His opponent had done the same, and the local adult – a hobbyist who participated every year – was sitting underneath a parasol that hadn't been there earlier.

Danny wished the organisation could put some up where he was standing too. The sun was at full strength, with not a cloud in the air, and there was no shadow to be seen. Danny had already gone through three bottles of water since lunch and he had reapplied sun lotion twice.

Cherubi came out, looking both invigorated by the weather and tired by the extended battles. The Jeune Tournoi was small, and it used a double elimination format. Serena had lost the first round, which had given her an extra match to get here. The young opponent – if it hadn't been for the well-worn clothing, Danny could've believed he was pre-journey – had had the same route in the other group, but there were six pokéballs on his belt to Serena's four. Danny had seen him use a staryu before, relying a lot on physical moves to offset the heat; water was as likely to be refreshing as it was to be damaging without applying enough force.

Inkay was the Pokémon the red-haired boy sent out; the squid-like Pokémon doing a happy twirl in mid-air, but Danny could see that it, too, was at least a bit tired. The question was if Serena noticed that.

Mind games were a thing in battles. Max's battle for the Forge Badge had hammered that home for Danny.

Serena had one big advantage, and she knew it. Cherubi were deceptively quick in heavy sunlight due to their Ability. The small red-pink ball started moving, jinking right to easily avoid a Psybeam sent straight down the middle, before summoning a more vicious form of Magical Leaf than it had done in the Dendemille Showcase a week before.

A Light Screen blocked a lot of the attack, but Serena seemed okay with that. She ordered a Leech Seed, which forced inkay to push out a wave of psionic energy to stop them from connecting.

Inkay went on the offensive, using its powers to propel itself forward with decent speed as a purple aura started to envelop it. It looked familiar, but it was only when the attack was actually launched – nearly hitting cherubi, who reversed direction on a speck of sand – that Danny recognised the Topsy-Turvy attack. He hadn't ever told Serena about how it looked, though they had had a small talk about how to work around it at some point. All theoretical, sadly, because inkay and malamar were the only Pokémon who could actually learn the move.

Cherubi jumped into the air, gathering power for a Solar Beam as he went up, but the inkay was quick on the mark, leading a Psybeam into the Grass-type perfectly and interrupting the charge. Danny wanted to yell to Serena that jumping while attacking left your Pokémon open, but he was fairly sure she couldn't hear him, and it'd be unsporting too.

She followed with more cautious moves – a half-hit Magical Leaf, a blocked Leech Seed, and an attempt at rejuvenating cherubi with Morning Sun, but that was interrupted by a quick and accurate Psybeam, though the dodge-roll was well-timed.

Weirdly, Solar Beam wasn't used again, even though Danny saw at least two times that it could have been used.

Realisation dawned as a quartet of seeds forced inkay to use the psionic pulse for the third time in the battle. Serena was using _his_ strategy of waiting out the opponent and stalling until they lost. The idea that it was cherubi – a fragile Grass-type with Solar Beam in great weather for it – using it boggled the mind, but Danny couldn't deny it was effective. Already he saw the inkay's Psybeams become more jagged, and a Night Slash took far too long to generate, leading into the first real Solar Beam of the match missing by inches.

And after that Solar Beam, cherubi chirped once before erupting into white light. "Well, that seals it," Danny muttered to nobody in particular.

The Sunshine Form cherrim's Solar Beam was a bit bigger than it had been as a cherubi, but more importantly, the Psybeam that inkay sent to interrupt apparently did nothing except tickle. The Blossom Pokémon just let the attack hit him, uncaring. Cherrim's ability made it more resilient to the same suite of attacks that Light Screen was effective against, if the sun was out.

It was lucky that the Psybeam didn't confuse, but cherrim had probably thought that was a risk worth taking. It did give him an easy shot on the floating Pokémon, who was clipped by half the attack, spiralling down before halting its fall just in time to be slammed by Magical Leaves.

Serena looked a bit shocked that she had actually won, but she was incredibly happy for cherrim to have evolved, immediately gathering him in her arms the moment she reached him. It took the referee to cough to remind her that her opponent was waiting for the obligatory post-match handshake, and even from half a field away, Danny could tell that her face burned.

More than was usual in this weather anyway.

Three hours later and after the prize ceremony that saw Serena be the only one with a prize – both boys had been knocked out in the round of eight – Danny saw Max's eyes widen suddenly. "No way..."

And he slipped through the crowds, using his smaller size to great advantage. Danny tried to follow, but everyone moved against him, causing him to lose sight of his friend.

It was half a minute later that he found Max again, talking to… "Isn't that my last opponent?" Serena said from Danny's left. He glanced at her – seeing very red cheeks from both happiness and sunburn. She was already wearing her prize: a new watch with glow-in-the-dark properties. It looked cool enough. "Did you see them talk to each other earlier today or something?"

Danny shook his head mutely, finally walking up to them. Max heard them coming, and he shifted to include them in the talk. "Hugo, meet my friends, Danny and..."

"Serena, right?" The boy's voice really didn't help Danny's guess as to how old he was. "I lost to her for third place." He didn't seem too heartbroken over it. In fact, he started chuckling. "Of all the people to meet, it's you." A tap on his belt, and a Pokémon materialised on his shoulder. "Hey ralts, remember this boy?"

The elated cry, and the quick-as-a-flash movement – Danny wasn't sure it wasn't a Teleport – to the crook of Max's elbow, where Max's other hand was already waiting to rub the ralts on its back, answered that. "Someone's eager for those rubs."

"I've been doing the same since we met," Hugo shared happily. "She really likes it, and it's kind of our evening ritual now. Helps a lot in calming down before going to sleep."

"Can one of you tell me how you know each other?" Serena asked the question Danny had on his mind as well. The fact that he saw Max be comfortable with a ralts had thrown him off for a bit. "You're not cousins or something?"

"We're birthday pals,, only he's a year older," Hugo told them, an infectious grin on his face still. "I'm from Shalour, and Max's vulpix caught my attention when I was walking to the Tower of Mastery the day before my birthday." He looked at Max. "Is she here? Seems like she'd enjoy the weather."

Hugo held out a hand to let ralts jump off, which freed Max's arm to move, tapping a pokéball and sending out a battered vulpix. A few patches of fur looked charred, and her fur in general was unkempt. "A zebstrika nearly got the best of her," Max explained as he took the fox in his arms, and Hugo carefully reached out to touch the fur. "Just don't touch the spots where electricity hit and she should be fine."

And if she wasn't, they'd probably hear about it. Vulpix was like that. "Er… Danny, was it?" Hugo asked as he started petting vulpix gently. "Is that a digital camera? Can you..."

Someone bumped into the twelve-year-old, causing him to stumble into Max, which caused Max to nearly stumble into the woman behind them. "Sorry!" Max apologised when the older woman – looking like someone's mother – turned and gave them a disapproving look. "You want a picture, Hugo?"

"Of my team. I finally have six Pokémon now, and I want to send a picture to my family." The ralts let out a keening cry. "Maybe have them be healed first. Oh, that's going to take ages..."

The Center was at the other end of town, though a first aid post had been set up for the tournament. It was probably about two miles by foot, but many of the Trainers had already left. "How about we drop our Pokémon off and go out for dinner?" Max suggested, handing vulpix over to Hugo. "And then we can do the pictures."

That xatu was really coming in handy for all sorts of purposes, Danny mused ten minutes later as they exited the Center with a much-lessened load of Pokémon. Serena was flat-out Pokémonless, while Hugo only had his ralts left; the small Psychic-type riding along on the boy's shoulder much like Danny had seen Ash's pikachu do. Max and Danny only had two Pokémon each: xatu and poliwhirl; spritzee and diggersby.

Serena pulled Danny aside at the restaurant. "Are you sure he's not a cousin or a friend of the family or something?" she asked, eyes flashing towards where Max and Hugo were looking for a free table. "They're talking like they're good friends."

"The ralts really helps to break the ice," Danny told her, but he had to agree as well. "It feels so strange to see him with one now. It's making _me_ wonder what could have been, and I have no idea how Max does it."

"Does what?"

"Be so… Happy," Danny said after searching for a better way to put it. "We both know he's not over it at all, and he's never going to talk about it unless he wants to." Danny had tried twice to get Max to talk, but the younger boy had just clammed up the first time, and glared at him the second. "It just can't be healthy."

"Since when are you a psychologist?" Serena asked, but Max and Hugo rejoined them then, leading the group to a table in the back of the restaurant. It was warmer than they wanted, but it was a table for four that was at least inside, and not underneath the blazing sun outside.

To his surprise, Danny found himself warming to the Kalosian boy by the end of dinner. Perhaps it was the insatiable curiosity that he seemed to have, or maybe the ralts was broadcasting happy emotions back – Danny knew full-well that the small Pokémon thrived on positive energy – but it didn't really matter. It was a happy group who took the Teleport back, and various pictures of their teams were soon taken.

He honestly had no idea why they hadn't done this before. It was a great way of showing family and friends how good a time they were having.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The day had started so bloody well, Max thought as he stomped outside for a late-night breath of fresh air, footsteps loud in the near-midnight silence. Nurse Joy probably shot him a weird look as he exited, but she didn't stop him, and he sat down on a bench in front of the building. This time of night, the wood was slightly cool, but that was pretty welcome.

First, they'd had the tournament. Serena had won a prize, and while he had been a bit annoyed at losing, it wasn't like his opponent was a slouch, and Max's unbeaten streak against Trainers his age or younger – except Danny – had continued into its second month. Then he'd seen someone he hadn't ever expected to see, and just… Just being around a ralts felt great. The calming feeling that had come over him when Hugo had sent the Pokémon out reminded him of his trip to Izabe the September before, in all the right ways.

And then the news had reported Team Flare had struck again – trying something with the Anistar sundial while the sun was in some sort of favourable position – and all of his good mood went out the window so fast it startled the ralts sitting on Hugo's shoulder.

Jirachi, he hated Team Flare and everything they stood for, but for the second region he was in in a row, the villainous team was just getting more and more brazen about attacking. They had expected to just waltz in and do… Whatever it was they wanted to do… The news hadn't been clear on that. Probably something about restoring beauty to Kalos or some other shit.

Luckily, the Anistar Gym Leader had stopped them. It was something at least, but Max knew all too well that Gym Leaders couldn't be everywhere all at once. The attack in Petalburg had made that all too clear, and his Dad had been wounded in that too. Last he had seen, the wound had left an obvious scar, the skin there unaffected by the large amount of sun in a Hoenn summer.

He sighed, looking back around at the Center, locating their first-floor room with ease. They'd all gone to bed a while back, but Max hadn't been able to fall asleep. He'd wanted to leave almost as soon as he had crawled under the single sheet, but he had waited for Danny and Serena's breathing to even out before doing that. There wasn't any need to interrupt their sleep as well, he figured.

And he wasn't sure they'd _understand._

Max loved Danny like a brother – hell, as far as he was concerned, they were brothers from different mothers – but the older teenager just hadn't been there for the times that some Legendary had been unleashed on the world around them, fake or real. Max could talk all he wanted about it, but there was a huge difference between reading or hearing about something and being there. It had been worst with the fake groudon, if only because he also had to protect jirachi, but all of them had been pretty terrifying. That just how Legendaries were; if they were up against you, seeking cover was the least of your worries.

And Team Rocket believed that the situation in Kalos was similar to the one back in Hoenn. That, more than anything, scared the living daylights out of him.

He'd done his reading in the book Serena had given him. Xerneas's life-creating aura had kept humans and Pokémon alive through everything, allegedly including normally fatal wounds. There were few things it couldn't counter, but yveltal as its polar opposite was pretty good at those. The Legendary of Death's signature move – the book had called it Oblivion Wing for what it did and the attack's origin – straight up sucked the life out of those hit, and it was just very good at wreaking destruction everywhere.

As for zygarde… There was a reason the Dahara Desert was a desert.

If only he could do more. Find jirachi again, and wish Team Flare into prison or something. The thought prompted a wan smile; he didn't know if jirachi would've had the power for that, and it was just so easy a solution in the first place. The real world generally didn't have such easy solutions, which was why organisations like the G-men existed: to oppose those who would use seek to use force and Pokémon to change the world.

And he was completely in agreement on that.

 **~~§~~§~~**

It took a few minutes for one of the temporary assistants in one of the Indigo Plateau Pokémon Centers to find the right person, but when Alice came into view, her smile was as wide as anything Max had seen in a while. Linda waved behind her, as did Max, Danny, and Serena. "Well, I wasn't expectin' all o' ya," Alice drawled in her rural accent. "But I can guess why y'all are here."

"'Course you do. You've got a brain," Max told her, leading to a few laughs. "Good luck in the Grand Festival tomorrow. Do they still have that weird preliminary set-up? One Pokémon, one attack?" If he remembered correctly, May had got combusken to slice apart a frisbee.

"Uhuh. Growlithe's gonna do a heart-shaped Flame Charge, comin' out alongside a blue Fire Seal," Alice told them, holding up a pokéball. Max saw a blue flame just above the button. "That impressive enough for ya?"

Max took a moment to glance at Serena, but the girl seemed to be temporarily lost in thought. Probably thinking about how she could use that idea herself, what with braixen being very good at pyrokinesis by virtue of her Psychic powers. "If growlithe's got the control for it, go for it. You know a lot more about Contests than I do anyway."

Alice didn't look like she agreed, but Max knew that his words were true. He'd only been a spectator, while Alice had participated in a lot of them, and more recently to boot. "Well, here's hopin' you can watch me do stuff." The black-haired girl cocked her head. "Do ya even get it on television over there?"

Serena stepped forward. "There's an internet broadcast by the Grand Festival itself, and recaps every night."

"You've got a computer in your room?" Linda wondered, and the teenagers currently in Anistar City – Lune Town was within a day's walk from where they were now – nodded. "That's so much more cool than here in Kanto. There's about ten computers for the entire Center, and it fits about a hundred people and it serves more because some Coordinators are staying in hostels and all."

"Well, Kalos is just better," Serena said, and Max didn't need to turn around to know that she was looking as arrogant as she could. He also knew that she couldn't hold it the moment anyone started smiling, and Alice soon did just that. "They're not great and the internet's not all that fast, but it's better than nothing."

"She's still going to spend all of her time watching it," Max added, amused by their surprised looks. "Are your paren… Shit."

He cut off because surprise turned into a glare from both of them. "Nah," Alice said, her voice cold and dark "They're all 'bout wantin' me to do what's 'right' 'n come home to them to let me travel with Paul 'gain."

"I'm guessing you don't want that," Danny ventured, and Max restrained himself from rolling his eyes. He'd asked Alice the same thing before, remembering that he and May had had fights, but they had always made up.

The girl had pulled out a letter and read the first paragraph to him. If Max had used that language to talk to May, he would have been grounded for months. He had wished the parents would be more sensible in understanding that Paul had been the one 'betraying' Alice, and not the other way around. At the time, Alice had said the same, but they had cast their lot.

"They're a bunch of backwards dipshits who want their daughter to stop doin' something she loves to let them travel with a brother who's repeatedly been insultin' her Pokémon and gave her no time to actually do the things she enjoys while travellin'," Linda spat, the acid in her voice almost enough to make Max recoil despite his own lost respect for the adults. Alice didn't blink an eye. "'m sorry," the Unovan added. "But you weren't there when Paul left, 'n Alice was just lost. Took me a month to get her out of her funk." A hand on Alice's shoulder stopped the black-haired girl from speaking. "You were a complete mess until you won another Contest."

There was an awkward silence, and Max felt guilty for raising an obviously painful subject without thinking about it. "What are you going to do afterwards? You've got nine months to get five Johto Ribbons, if you want."

Alice's announcement that she and Linda were going to Unova instead was a small shock, but one look at Linda told Max everything he needed to know about that. She'd been away from home for two years – her birthday was next week – and now that Team Plasma was largely gone… It made sense. Not seeing your family for that long _sucked_ , and it was even worse if it wasn't by choice.

The call continued for a bit longer; everyone swapping stories about their Pokémon and sharing recent evolutions and captures, but while it was the afternoon in Kalos, it was way past dark in Kanto, and both girls soon begged off. The Grand Festival started at noon, but beauty sleeps needed to be had.

Max was glad Linda had said that. If it had been him or Danny saying that, he just knew all of the girls would've scoffed something about boys in haughty voices.

He really didn't understand them sometimes.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Dear Alice,_

 _Why have you not responded to our last letter? Don't think you can say you didn't receive it: we've talked to the Nurse Joy and she told us that she gave it to you. Your father is incensed with your irresponsible actions. Be glad he's busy with the harvest, or you would have heard from him._

 _I do not understand why you are being so stubborn. First you refuse to go with your brother when he wanted to return here, and then you ignore us. Perhaps there is something about Psychic-types that is wrong: you never used to be like this until you met that slowpoke. When you return home, you should probably think about giving it up for trade. There are better Pokémon for young ladies like you._

 _Your mother,_

 _Carol_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The first new capture for Max in 20 chapters, an unexpected meeting, and some checking in on the two still in Kanto. Above all: a calm chapter in which nothing really happens - sometimes you just have quiet weeks. If you're not called Ash.


	25. Future Sight

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 25: Future Sight**

Anistar City was the most populous town in the eastern part of Kalos, and it showed in the sheer amount of Trainers who passed through, and the amount of Pokémon Centers they could stay in. No less than five Centers – less than Lumiose, but more than any other location Danny had ever been to, excepting Ever Grande – were spread throughout town, with most of them at least half-full at any given time. Now, with the Showcase coming up, Danny, Max, and Serena had been forced to go and take a place at the second Center they had encountered because the first was full. That had been a first for them.

Still, for all the Trainers passing through the city, a lot of them were skipping out on challenging the local Gym. Danny didn't understand that: why shy away from fighting a powerful Gym Leader like Olympia was supposed to be? Didn't they know that Gym Leaders were there to challenge them, and not be some kind of obstacle? Perhaps the format scared people away, but two-on-two was old news for anyone from Hoenn, which was one of the reasons why they'd picked Anistar as one of the Gyms they wanted to visit, way back when they first planned out their trek through Kalos.

That was so long ago, he mused as he watched various Pokémon skitter, run, walk and fly around the grassy field just outside the city limits. Right now, it was just the three of them with their Pokémon, thanks to Serena and himself putting their feet down and forbidding Max to go for another multi-hour battle session today. They'd already had one of those in the morning, and while both boys had gotten their arses kicked a few times, they had won more than they had lost.

Of course, the first win for both of them had been because they were facing older opponents who thought they could win without giving it their all. Dusclops and manectric had quickly disabused both of them of that notion.

The constant underestimation by random Trainers was annoying Danny, and Max had been outright condescending about it a few times already. Not that Danny could really blame him: after so long of just punching above their age class, it was almost strange to see kids their age make the weirdest of mistakes. He'd seen a girl be completely stunned when the opposing noctowl had turned out to know Foresight to knock her haunter out of invisibility, back in the Jeune Tournoi, in the elimination match in Serena's group. He couldn't understand that: why wouldn't you think about counters to their Pokémon if you went into battling?

It also explained why Max had been insistent on being a part of the Vieux Tournoi, despite the lower division only having seven participants when they had walked up to the organisation's tent. The lower division was open to all Trainers under the age of thirteen years and six months old, after all, and the men registering them had asked them three times – once for Danny, twice for Max – if they didn't want to enter the Jeune Tournoi.

Max not really looking that much older than twelve probably didn't help, but after producing the fourteen badges they had right now, the organisation had relented, and they entered as the two youngest participants. There was one other who was eligible to enter both tournaments, and he had apparently told Max that he'd been asked the same thing.

Something pointy tapped against the side of his shoe, and Danny looked down, his musings put on hold. He saw skorupi, the small scorpion fidgeting, doing his best impression of hopping from one foot onto another. On a Pokémon with four tiny legs, it looked faintly ridiculous. "I wish you could just tell me what was going on," Danny told the purple Pokémon. "You've been antsy all day."

The Pokémon chittered, half-turning and… beckoning with his stinger? Hardly the strangest thing Danny had seen from his Pokémon – for a creepy Ghost, dusclops was surprisingly good at explaining what she wanted – but it was out of character.

Then again, skorupi wasn't this energetic normally either.

He followed skorupi over to where Serena and her new cherrim were sunbathing, nearly stepping on vulpix's tail as she shot by underfoot in her chase for zorua.

Skorupi started to talk to cherrim, the flower-like Pokémon replying lazily. It looked like Danny's Pokémon was asking Serena's something, and then skorupi turned to his Trainer, using his stinger to alternately point at cherrim, himself, and then Danny, in that order. He had no idea what his Pokémon was trying to say, and not for the first time, he wished someone would invent something that'd make Pokémon intelligible. He generally had a good idea of what they wanted, but this was beyond his understanding.

Wait a second. Was that a flash of light; one that skorupi visibly tensed against before it subsided?

Danny lifted the scorpion with a little difficulty, and the moment he did, he felt his Pokémon shiver. It wasn't too obvious, but it was there. "Skorupi," he said, looking into teal eyes. "You're the only one who has any say about evolving. Didn't froslass tell you that? Was I not clear enough?" A stinger and claws went limp in shame. "Don't be like that. You're… If you want to evolve, then do it. You're still going to be my Pokémon. Still that brave skorupi that tried to stop a charizard on Meteor Falls. All you're really giving up is me lifting you like this."

He saw and felt skorupi both relax and perk up, and he quickly put the Pokémon down as the white returned. The evolution was quick, and almost explosive in intensity, making him take a few steps back, and both cherrim and Serena looked up. The hat flew off of Serena's head, he noticed from the corner of his eyes, though she kept looking anyway.

The first thing drapion did after evolving was to wrap his arms around Danny's sides, carefully so the sharp claws didn't get stuck on clothing. He returned the hug, feeling the body segments under his hands. They were surprisingly hard; the evolved Pokémon's exoskeleton even more protective of vulnerable parts of his body. "Feeling better now?"

"Dra!"

He took a few minutes to just look over his new Pokémon, and drapion himself tested the way his new arms worked. Then the scorpion-like Pokémon laid down in the summer sun and started lazing, causing a chuckle. Evolved or not, cold-blooded Pokémon liked the sun and warmth.

"Sometimes, I'm really jealous of the way you just know just what your Pokémon is saying," Serena told him. Danny saw that she'd retrieved her hat, though she held it in her hand instead of wearing it. "You've got over a dozen, and you understand all of them."

Danny glanced sideways, seeing diggersby and bagon playing. "I had no idea until I saw drapion suppress the evolution. The bit before that makes sense _now,_ but for all I knew, he wanted some of the honey you gave cherrim earlier." The idea of a large and not very friendly-looking Pokémon like drapion suckling on a honey-covered claw put a smile on Danny's face, and Serena agreed with that from the looks of it. "You've got everything planned for the Anistar Showcase? Within reason," he added, remembering that Serena loved to improvise.

"Yeah. A picnic with zorua and cherrim, and some weather control," Serena answered. "And maybe a naughty swablu. I don't know if three Pokémon are allowed."

Danny didn't either. "The Flame Charge not working out yet?" She'd spent a lot of time with braixen, and he had been assuming it had been for practising that.

"It's working great, actually." The girl just about bounced with excitement. "Braixen really has great control, but I don't think dancing works with it all that well. So… We're not using it now. We'll make it extra-good for the next Showcase. Something that'll really knock the opponents out."

"Figuratively, I hope?" Max spoke up from behind Danny, and it was all he could do to not jump. Again. "Pay attention to your surroundings, young grasshopper."

"Said the boy a month younger than I am and at least half a foot shorter." He turned around, seeing Max look as smug as he was expecting, eyes almost twinkling behind his new glasses. The frame was largely the same shape as his old pair, but the emerald-coloured rim was an upgrade on the plain old black. "Oh, right. I forgot. Why did you say 'when' drapion was going to evolve last week, and not if? At the Frost Cavern."

"Because he was showing signs of evolution already." Max gave him a look of disbelief. "I thought you noticed. His skin was almost glossy, as if it was being stretched to its limit. That's a sign of evolution for a lot of bugs."

"You could have told me. It would've saved a bit of time."

"I thought you knew, okay?" Max replied, and he did look somewhat sorry. "You wanna postpone the Gym Battle a few days? Practice some with drapion?"

Right. Dark-type. Very well-timed for the Psychic-type Gym, though Danny held no illusions that Olympia would have counters ready. "I'm down with that. Serena?"

Of course, now that Max had put the idea of practice in Danny's head, there was no idle relaxing in the sun any longer. Danny's brain didn't work that way, and he knew it. He also knew Max knew it, and not for the first time – not even the first time that week – he half-cursed his best friend and his endless fountain of ideas for essentially dragging the two of them into more training – which was what Max wanted more than anything.

Danny had no idea what he would have done without Max, but he knew that the journey would've been a lot simpler; both in events and in Pokémon training.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Mystical fire shot at Max's xatu, the flame twisting as it already prepared to follow the bird around. A glance at the clock told Serena that the Gym Battle had been going on for close to ten minutes already, which was a long time for a fight with just two Pokémon per side, but if there was one thing that summed up the battle up until now, it was caution.

Olympia had all but demanded that Max use two of his Psychic-types, and Max had eagerly agreed. Serena knew that he had been planning to use xatu, though she hadn't known why exactly, but the other Pokémon had been up in the air. Danny hadn't known either, though he had guessed manectric to be Max's second Pokémon. Serena felt more for sceptile, but after the request, it was baltoy. It and xatu were up against a mr. mime and a delphox; a fact that had made Serena send braixen out, telling her to pay close attention.

If she was honest, she probably hadn't needed to say that, but she'd been in a hurry to send her starter out before the match started.

Both Trainers had been focused more on defending over attacking at first. Olympia had started that when she had her mr. mime throw up Light Screens, and then Max had responded by making baltoy call up Rock Tombs to hide behind; the wall as tall as xatu was.

The rocks shattered under a powerful Psybeam, but that played straight into Max's hands, and baltoy had moved to fling all sorts of rocks at the Gym Leader's Pokémon while xatu Teleported around. Mr. mime's barriers had started like simple squares, but after the first time of xatu dropping an Ominous Wind from above, it switched to the dome-shape that Max liked to use more.

But the domes were weaker to direct attacks, which Max had exploited ruthlessly.

Now, though, there was no barrier to be seen any longer. Baltoy had been knocked out first as a Magical Leaf slipped through, cutting it down and allowing delphox to move in for an unmissable Shadow Ball. Before, baltoy had peppered anyone who got close with rocks, but now, delphox was able to slip past those.

When the Fire-type had turned around, xatu had just finished mr. mime off with an Air Slash.

What had followed was a lot of teleportation, and a lot of back and forth. First, xatu had had the upper hand, but then delphox had caught on to the trick, instead sending attacks to where xatu was going to appear. Not to be outdone, Max ordered xatu to shake it up again, and that was where they were now. The Fire-type had just decided that enough was enough, calling forth a dome of fire around itself; flame lashing out to intercept an Air Slash before surging forward at xatu.

A strange violet and sky blue shock wave met it, passing _through_ the attack and slamming into delphox hard. The Fox Pokémon fell, like strings being cut from a puppet, though xatu had suffered the same fate on the other side. A draw, then.

Trainer and Gym Leader met in the middle, and Serena saw the strange blue floor already repair itself somehow. The entire Gym had a weird feeling to it; between the floor, the planetary dome overhead, the casual use of Psychic powers by Olympia… It fit together undeniably, but it was a little unnerving. "Answer me this, Max Maple of Hoenn," Olympia intoned in that imperious voice of hers. Serena shivered slightly. "Your Pokémon held on to its most powerful attack right until the very end. Why?"

Most powerful attack? Huh? Serena didn't even know what it was, let alone it being more powerful than the Air Slashes… "Xatu's still learning it. In practices, it seemed like there was feedback onto him. It never seemed the right time to use it until that Mystical Fire dome."

Olympia considered Max's words, eyes unblinking as they bored into Max's soul. The boy met the gaze unflinchingly with that calm confidence that he only had during or after battle. "You have trained your Pokémon well in a variety of tactics. You understood instinctively when and how to attack or defend, and you kept exact strengths hidden until the moment their secrecy was no longer needed." She nodded. "Once your friend has had his battle, you will receive the Psychic Badge."

Danny had been allowed to watch, though he had been separated from Serena as per Gym protocol that she didn't understand. Now, he was here, and after a congratulatory shake and one-armed boy hug, he walked back to where Max had been standing, while Max and Serena climbed the stairs to the mostly empty stands. "What was that last move?"

"Synchronoise," Max answered immediately, not even looking at Serena as they walked to where braixen was sitting. "It's a Psychic-type move, but it doesn't damage anything unless the user and the victim share a Type." They sat down in the same spot as before; braixen having stayed up there. "It's a powerful attack, but it's been really hard to get right, and it's very limited."

"But perfect for the Gym here," Serena finished. "It hits everyone in range, right? Like Discharge. So you couldn't use it before baltoy was knocked out."

"Xatu could have." It was not the answer Serena expected, but Max had anticipated her. "Teleport behind the two of them and launch the attack. It'd be too weak to do much to baltoy and xatu's pretty fast with it." They sat down, Serena running a hand through braixen's mane of fur. "But those feedback issues I mentioned keep him in place for a few seconds." Down on the field, the referee said something useless about this battle, too, being subject to the same rules as before. "In a Double Battle, two are better than one. Unless you're absolutely sure your one can beat a weakened duo, don't have a Pokémon just wear itself out for nothing. If the attack hadn't been a knock-out, xatu would have been hit by whatever that mr. mime could throw at him."

"And you didn't trust baltoy to do that?"

"Baltoy would've lost to the delphox. You need agility to avoid that fire. Now let's watch what Danny does."

The drapion wasn't a surprise to see out, though it had caused them to stay in Anistar longer than they initially planned. It was ten days after Serena's third place in the Anistar Showcase, and most of those ten days had been spent working with the new Dark-type and working around counters.

Serena had idly wondered why Max and Danny had been so certain that Olympia would have a counter, but their response had been simple and clear. _"Type immunity is very predictable. Every Pokémon Dad uses has some way of working against Ghosts. Even the ones he uses to fight complete rookies,"_ Max had said, and Danny had added something about a move he'd read about. Miracle Eye worked like Foresight, except on Dark-types for Psychic-types.

Diggersby was the one going to run interference for that, apparently, though Serena didn't know if meowstic could actually learn Miracle Eye.

Danny didn't either, from the looks of it, as he checked the Pokédex at the same time as Serena did.

She vowed to keep an eye on the male meowstic and on diggersby, just to see how it worked out.

Unlike last time, Olympia went on the offensive immediately. The blue meowstic launched something that diggersby immediately ran to intercept – Serena assumed it was Miracle Eye – while the white meowstic opened with a dark purple beam. It looked like Dark Pulse, except it clearly wasn't. "What move is that?"

"Psyshock, I think. Psybeam's got more colours and I can't remember other Psychic moves coming out in a beam."

Whichever attack it was, it couldn't stand up to a Pin Missile, and diggersby swung his ears, using Doubleslap to block another attack that Serena had missed before tunnelling into the ground, as did drapion.

In response, both meowstic glowed and started to fly under their own Psychic powers, and Danny's Pokémon popped out of the floor near him, away from both felines. It didn't stop the white meowstic from glowing with an attack, but it wasn't one that did anything immediately.

Wait, why was Danny looking at his wrist? Was that… Serena's head snapped to Max's wrist. "Why's your watch with Danny?"

"He wanted it. Keep track of Future Sight." Max sounded both curious and a bit… dismissive? "If meowstic is smart, she'll vary the timings to throw Danny off, but I hope for him it works."

While they had been chatting, diggersby had gone on the offensive by Bulldozing Olympia's half of the arena, forcing both felines to stay afloat in the air where they were beset by a wide spray of Pin Missiles; drapion using both mouth and claws to launch them. The male meowstic managed two quick personal Light Screens to minimise the damage, but they did stop the female from launching another attack. Instead, she swerved away, heading to her left. The male followed, while Danny's Pokémon tracked them and waited roughly in place.

A swing of diggersby's ears blocked another Miracle Eye at the same time as the rabbit-like Pokémon threw out a Mud Shot to intercept the Dark Pulse heading for him. The attacks collided and exploded, erupting into a small smokescreen that blocked Serena's sight of the meowstic duo for a spell.

Danny ordered both his Pokémon back, and they obliged, diggersby avoiding a Psyshock by Digging into the ground and coming back up seconds and twenty feet later. "He's got an idea," Max said as the rabbit came back up and as the felines moved into the middle of the arena, hovering above the half-way line.

The idea turned out to be Pin Missile and Mud Shot to meet halfway between them and the meowstic, leading to a larger cloud of thick smoke that probably blocked Danny's sight of Olympia and vice versa. The side profile allowed Serena and Max to see all of it, though.

And then drapion ran in, violent purple in his mouth. "What's Danny doing? Isn't drapion going to be hit by Miracle Eye?"

"Psychic-types often use a sixth sense to know where other Pokémon are. It's how xatu is never surprised when someone walks past, but we are," Max said as drapion emerged from the other side of the cloud, landing on the white meowstic and forcing her to the ground. At the same time, diggersby started pelting mud at the male meowstic, forcing a Light Screen. "But they can't sense Dark-types. Or can't sense them well, I don't know."

"So by blocking sight, they lost track of drapion," Serena summarised as the purple Pokémon jumped off of meowstic to deliver a powerful swipe with his tail, sending the light Pokémon cartwheeling into the air. She righted herself, but one of her ears looked like it was just hanging there. "That doesn't look good."

"No, but drapion was hit by Miracle Eye," Max told her, and Serena felt a bit peevish. Hadn't she vowed to herself to follow the _male_ meowstic? "So now –" A shimmering Protect was forced out, leaving the scorpion safe – "he'll have to be more careful."

'Careful' was something Danny was good at, Serena knew, but before he could start doing that, the Future Sight from earlier slammed into diggersby from above. The attack forced drapion to intercept a Dark Pulse with his body, while the male meowstic started glowing with a red aura that spread slowly but surely.

It reached drapion, but not diggersby after Pin Missiles forced the blue Pokémon to stop; one of the half dozen projectiles hitting as he jumped up. "What was that?"

"Imprison. I think he might know Protect." Another Future Sight was made, Danny immediately glancing at his wrist. "Smart from Olympia. She doesn't have much time."

Diggersby rolled out of the way of a Dark Pulse while drapion just dug to safety, coming up before the meowstic could do something to his battle partner. Serena focused on the female meowstic, and thought she saw what Max meant; something purple was oozing from the ear that had been hurt. Poison?

Olympia's Pokémon landed, raising arms and one ear side by side, and a pair of Psyshocks burst forth, lancing across the room and clipping drapion on the tail while diggersby retaliated with a Bulldoze.

Then the male meowstic also used that, and both of Max's Pokémon had to brace themselves against the attack, allowing the female meowstic to send a second Future Sight off.

Danny seemed to recognise that he needed to hurry as well, and drapion dug into the ground, prompting both meowstic to head into the air, straight into a Mud Shot from diggersby. Another unnaturally quick Light Screen blocked most of it, but not all, and the white meowstic looked a lot less steady floating there than her partner, who placed himself between her and drapion's Poison Sting, using a Protect to shrug the attack off while a violent wave of Psychic energy disrupted the Mud Shot from the other direction.

Danny yelled something, and his Pokémon met up in the middle, Pin Missiles blocking enough of the Helping Hand-boosted Dark Pulse for diggersby to get out of the way by pushing off on his ears, flipping in mid-air to land on his feet; a Protect immediately slamming into life and blocking the Future Sight. "Well, she didn't alternate the timing. Wonder why."

A pair of Psyshocks slammed into drapion, forcing him to put one claw to the ground to stay upright while diggersby used the fact that the female meowstic was hovering low to launch himself forward with a Doubleslap glowing on his ears. Blue intercepted him, but he got three or four hits in before a wave of Psychic energy forced him to the ground. The landing and follow-up roll looked almost effortless, even though he hadn't returned that way on his own, and he avoided a Psyshock in the process. "Is it me, or does the male meowstic only have Psyshock for outright damage?"

"It's got Confusion and Me First too – that's how it used Bulldoze," Max told her. "They're more oriented towards supporting and disrupting in general. Danny was smart to go after the female one with drapion." The boy on the arena floor checked his watch, calling out for his Pokémon to come together again.

Dark Pulse, Psyshock, and Future Sight all collided with the Protect; the first two a second ahead of the third, and diggersby's shield utterly shattered into tiny pieces, overwhelmed by the attacks. Drapion took the brunt of the Future Sight, while the Digging Pokémon got most of the explosion caused by the meowstic's attacks.

As it turned out, drapion was out, but so was the white meowstic. The Poison Fang had finally done its work, and both Trainers returned their Pokémon even as the other two started fighting one on one, Mud Shots from both sides flinging across the room. Projectiles hit each other, but both short Pokémon weren't hit by any of the ones that passed by. Meowstic averted a few with his powers, while diggersby just jumped left before rushing at his opponent, zigging to avoid any Psyshocks or Confusions.

Ears started glowing with Doubleslap, and meowstic used Me First to copy the attack, but then Danny shouted something and diggersby slammed the ears into the ground, creating a close-range Bulldoze that caught the Constraint Pokémon off-guard, sending him off-balance.

 _Then_ diggersby rushed in for a Doubleslap beat-down, and with the meowstic already on the ground, all it could do was to try and push the other Pokémon off. The problem with that was that diggersby were pretty heavy, and the push moved it less than Olympia wanted. A Protect was attempted, but it looked weak. A Mud Shot made quick work of it, and before meowstic could take to the air, it was bowled over for the second time.

There was a flash of Psyshock, but diggersby was undeterred in slapping his opponent into submission.

Olympia returned her Pokémon and that was the sign the two teens needed to head back down to the arena. Both of them hugged and congratulated Danny and diggersby before the victorious trainer returned his last Pokémon. The three of them turned to walk to the middle, but Olympia was already there, a Gym Trainer flanking her on both sides. "Time was not my ally in this fight," she observed. "It was yours, and your Psychic Badge was well-earned."

"What was that you did to the Protect?" Danny wondered after thanking her for the battle. "When drapion and your female meowstic got knocked out? The Protect should have held more than it did."

"When you combine polar opposites, the energy in each attack often becomes volatile. Psychic and Dark are anathema to each other, and the results of combining the Types is an explosion, as you saw." The brown-skinned Gym Leader glanced back at the spot where that had happened. "Yet all shields cannot defend all attacks the same. An explosion is different from a beam, and your diggersby was expecting the latter, not the former."

"It works like that for Protect?" Max asked, and there was a hint of amazement in there. "I thought it was just for Light Screen and Reflect. I certainly hadn't noticed it."

"Why do I have a feeling we're going to be testing this?" Danny half-lamented, to general laughter that he joined in with. "I did get a bit lucky that the poison stuck."

"What we ascribe to luck is often nothing more but the expected outcome," Olympia replied cryptically before levitating two badges over to the boys. "These are yours. Congratulations to both of you."

Both of them put their new items away: Max in a pocket, Danny in his case. Serena never understood why Danny insisted on bringing it. They thanked Olympia again and made to leave, but a throat being cleared stopped them.

The Gym Leader looked… A bit out of it. Focused, but less focused. Somehow. "For each of you, I have a message. Heed them, or the world will pay the price," Olympia said as she started _floating_ under her own Psychic powers. Shivers ran down Serena's spine, and she wasn't sure what kind. "Danny Birch… When torn on what to do, trust in yourself and your friends." She shifted slightly to the right. "Do not forget your surroundings, Max. Key information often lurks just out of sight." Piercing violet eyes fixed themselves on Serena; the sensation reminding her of… Of what exactly? "As for you… Do not overreach. You know your limitations well, Serena. Remember them."

Wait. How did Olympia know her name? She hadn't introduced herself, and none of the boys had called her by name. She looked back up – when had she averted her head? - and found that Olympia had nearly left the room, offering no further explanation to the sudden outburst. She made to yell after the Gym Leader, but a gasp stopped her. "Just realised," Max said softly, eyes wide and face pale. "The _world_ will pay the price? Does that..."

Oh no. Hell no. No, no, no…

Her legs threatened to crumble under her, but a strong shoulder suddenly nestled itself under her arm, a hand flung around her back. "Easy. Breathe," Danny whispered, voice low and worried. His face was drawn, dark-brown eyes fierce and slightly fearful, and he took a deep breath in. "Max? Need to talk to someone. Yesterday."

 **~~§~~§~~**

The clock read just past midnight, and the premier Kalos Pokémon Professor was on the verge of downing the last remnants of wine when a very particular song started playing in the room.

Thankfully, he didn't drop his glass. That had happened before, and he spent enough on housekeeping as it was. "Olympia. I'd say it was a pleasure to see you, but your calls at this hour tend to be of the kind that will keep me up longer whether I like it or not."

"Sleep is both a requirement of life and a luxury we can ill afford to partake in beyond the bare minimum," was the ominous reply of the Anistar Gym Leader. "Danger is coming to Kalos. Darkness is descending, held at bay only by mere pinpricks of light."

The statement knocked any semblance of drowsiness out of him. To those in the know, Olympia's warnings were as good as an actual glimpse of the future. She was that accurate, and her foreknowledge had saved multiple people over the past years. And earned her a ban from attending any casino. "Is it Team Flare?"

"The identities of most that are involved are hidden to me, and nearly all that are not are predictable from their station." Meaning Elite Four and the Champion, presumably. "And yet… What I saw today brightened the path ahead."

"What did you see in your séance?" Sycamore wondered.

"It was not a séance that granted me knowledge." Lips tilted upward. "Challengers arrived in the late afternoon. I had not foreseen their arrival, yet the moment they entered, I saw the strands of fate tug at them, and I rose to survey the strength of its string." Violet eyes sought to meet his own. "A stratagem of my own was utilised against me, and two won a badge. They, and their Performer companion travelling alongside, are familiar to you."

Sycamore knew of three trios that could fit in theory, yet in practice, there was no doubt. André, Peter, Petra had only left a week and a half prior; the twins and their friend departing on their journey the day after the latter's birthday. Shauna, Tierno, Trevor were over in Laverre last he had heard. Admittedly, it was a week back, but he also knew that Tierno and Trevor had already collected the Psychic Badge. "I know of who you speak, and their identities do not surprise me at all."

"Yet you do not know them. Let me pose this question, Professor Sycamore. Do you know the events that forged them; the strength of their camaraderie; that which is hidden underneath eager faces and youthful skin? The fire of conviction burns within them; its intensity a mixture of fright and awe to behold."

Sycamore parsed Olympia's typically flowery language with a little difficulty – the hour was perhaps getting to him. "Youth always has the strongest convictions. It is only later that pragmatism is introduced."

The gaze he received was grim. "On that, we will disagree. It is my experience that pragmatism comes from experience, and normally, youth does not have that. One of them does, and he leads because of it," Olympia said, keeping her voice and eyes level. "I did delve the depths of a séance afterwards, inspired and intrigued by what I had seen, and what I gathered of events past was enlightening."

Sycamore waited for an elaboration, but nothing came. "What can you tell me about the future?"

"All of them will play an integral role in the trials up ahead for Kalos. There are others; related, linked, but too indistinct for me to recognise. I cannot see their success or failure," Olympia answered his question without hesitation. "Swirling chaos, black and pale blue, impedes even my sight. All I know is that it will happen soon; while they yet have reason to remain in Kalos."

The Hoenn-born boys had seven badges now, with over two months to go, Sycamore remembered. "Then we should prepare for the worst."

"A prudent precaution," Olympia intoned. "Yet whatever you do, do not seek to push them a way, and especially not the one whose aura reflects the Wishmaker's tassels. Only in freedom can they understand the severity, and only in secrecy can we survive."

"Can't we tell other Gym Leaders? The Elite Four? The police? Anyone?"

"A veil covers many faces, and Flare's vines penetrate deep in society. Trusting the police would doom us all." Olympia's statement was surprisingly bereft of ambiguity; a testament to what she thought of the idea. "As for our numbers… Neither the youngest nor oldest stands against us, yet untimely dissemination will prove ruinous to us all. Share information with the greatest of care, and think thrice before you do so."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _The important secondary targets to disable are Laverre and Anistar due to Teleport-capable Pokémon, Lumiose due to proximity to the Labs, Pyrocorde for its Flying-type Gym, and Cyllage and Shalour due to proximity to the base. An analysis of each target is waiting in location 043._

 _-M_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** It's been a while since the last badge. Yes, Danny essentially used the same strategy as Ash (or rather, pikachu) used to keep track of Future Sights.

And likewise similar to the anime, Olympia delivers a warning.


	26. Completed Requirements

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 26: Completed Requirements**

Finally, Indigo Plateau came into view, the area mostly abandoned. The Grand Festival had been over for a while, and the area had fallen into its usual disuse, as the next competition there would be in February. There were scientific conferences and a variety of celebrations, yet those did not fill the area with as much life and vigour as either of the big Pokémon events did.

For his part, Reginald preferred the disuse for his current visit. His approach by air was unusual enough already, but the reason for his visit was such that he suspected that his return to Hoenn would be done via a flight the next morning on account of time required.

It had all started with an early-morning call from an unknown Kalos number. The videophone had revealed Norman's son, somewhat bleary-eyed and more fearful, and the sight had set Reginald on edge immediately. For all the doubts the Gym Leader had had, the boy had never broken the veil of secrecy unless circumstances forced him to. Telling that Kalosian girl about the G-men had been unfortunate, but a remote character assessment revealed nothing worrying, and all communication had been by letter, to varying postal boxes, utilising ciphers without fail.

The very fact that the boy was willing to call him – a Gym Leader he had never officially met and had unofficially seen but two minutes – was testament to the urgency the boy felt.

Reginald now shared that feeling of urgency, and had done so since the second sentence of the explanation. The admonition about using an unsecured videophone had perished soon after. Sometimes, needs must.

The Gym Leader directed his salamence to land on a hill overlooking one of the side-stadiums and immediately turned around to the small manor located behind, an underhand grip returning his transportation. There was no gate or wall to keep people out, but the Grand Champion's residence needed no such security measures. Pokémon were plenty good for that, and it wouldn't surprise him at all if Lance were to be waiting for him.

It wasn't quite the case, as he rang the bell three times before Lance opened the door, wearing fire-proof clothing. "Reginald? This is highly unexpected."

"Trust me, if I had any other recourse, I would have used it," Reginald replied, eyeing the charmeleon that had walked up behind. "Can the charmander be left alone for a while? I know you're busy for Oak, but..."

The answer was Lance beckoning him into the house, sending the charmeleon off before taking the familiar path through the gallery to the office. A new, room-high, painting greeted him as they entered. "A collaborative effort from the Blackthorn Clan's artists," Lance explained as Reginald studied the painting for a second, noticing the plethora of Dragon-types that flanked Kanto's and Johto's strongest trainer. Two drinks were placed on the desk between them. "But you are not here for art. Spill."

Reginald noticed the recorder off to the side, and adjusted his chair slightly so he was speaking into it more directly. "It all started this morning..."

By the time his admittedly short explanation finished, Lance had probably paled a full tint and the desk was being gripped rather tightly. "And this is new?"

"Less than a day old, spoken to him, his friends, and several of Olympia's disciples." Those would not a problem, Reginald knew. Every observation had spoken of the stringent character requirements on top of psionic potential for someone to be admitted as one of those disciples. "It gives us a timeline, but whether that is good or bad news..."

"Yes, I see your point," Lance cut in before shaking his head. "Is there _any_ way in which we can use this to our advantage beyond tipping the Kalosians off?" He sighed. "Insofar as there are advantages to be had with a region at stake."

Reginald agreed with Lance's assessment. Things had gone, to use the vulgar, tits up. This was damage control. "I formulated several plans on the flight here," he said before draining half of his glass of orange juice. "The chief issue is that we do not know the method that Team Flare will use. Considering Olympia's words, we can narrow it down to two options, but each requires a rather different approach to deal with."

"Two options? Wouldn't either xerneas or yveltal work?"

Reginald shook his head. "Once one awakens, the other is likely to follow. Old legends, sadly the only information available, have them mirror groudon and kyogre more than lugia and ho-oh. Both pairs are fundamentally about balance."

"Balance," Lance repeated blandly. "Yes, that worked out well."

Reginald couldn't agree more with the cynical sarcasm. "Rather. Regardless, anything involving those two will be fraught with comparatively little direct danger. Both Pokémon are capable of flight. That, if nothing else, should minimise casualties barring a battle in down-town Lumiose. As for zygarde," the Gym Leader continued once it became clear that his boss wasn't going to interrupt. "It will be the easier target to fight against and the harder to locate and entice into fighting for Team Flare. The Dahara desert incident only came around after thirty years of consistent and constant weather manipulation upsetting the natural order. It'd have to be controlled on top of being found and forcibly awakened."

"Which isn't an impossible task," Lance uttered darkly, rising from his chair and grasping a binder, hesitating for a moment before pushing it back. "At the Lake of Life incident, celebi was put under hostile control, though that was the last time I am aware of. Most megalomaniacs tend to go for disabling Legendaries over controlling them."

The leader and deputy shared a look. "It would have been good to know this before. This does raise the probability of zygarde." The other half of the drink went down Reginald's throat. "And what about Birch and Maple? They will be involved; Olympia's words implied as much. Do we leave them to best negotiate whatever fate throws at them without help?"

"It is a truly sad day when we know that the young will be caught up in a conflict," Lance lamented, sitting back down and placing his head between his hands in a moment of vulnerability. It was gone seconds later. "I think help should be given. We would not burn regular operatives in this situation, nor should we do that to them."

"What are your ideas?"

 **~~§~~§~~**

Grant's lycanroc finally fell before Jane's newly caught quilladin, and Keith let out a sigh of relief for his girlfriend of several months. The format here was challenging in all the right ways, and Grant had really pushed both of them to the limit. The Cyllage Gym Leader hadn't been joking when he had said that he was a wall: his Pokémon could take so much punishment. The boldore he had started out with against Jane had been proof of that.

He gave Jane a quick peck on the cheek after she had returned quilladin, and she squeezed his hand in return as they walked up to their opponent. The black man had a smile on his face. "And so I hand out two more badges to young teenagers from Petalburg. There aren't any more of you coming, right?"

"One's coming next month," Jane shared softly, surprising Keith. "Tristan. Dad got that from Tristan's Dad," she added for him. "No, we don't have to go meet him."

Good. It wasn't that they couldn't stand each other, Keith thought, but they'd always been quick to annoy the other. Keith hadn't liked the other boy's over the top bookishness and nasally declarations that ' _the type chart said so'_ , while Tristan hadn't liked him pointing out that type advantage wasn't everything and that he already had a starter Pokémon before he was twelve. They'd started at roughly the same time: Keith was just five days older, but he'd been fairly happy to hear that Tristan had only gotten seven badges in that year to his eight. In fact, he remembered laughing at that.

Okay, maybe he could kind of not stand Tristan.

Badges in hand, both thirteen year olds exited the Gym; the summer sun blasting down on them the instant they exited. Compared to the cave they'd just been in, it was like walking face-first into a brick wall of heat, and seaside places were supposed to be cooler because of the sea. As one, both of them pulled out sunglasses. Jane was already wearing the hat she'd bought here in Cyllage, too. "More than two months left. Never thought it'd be this fast."

"Helps we're better Trainers now. I spent the first month being overwhelmed by everything," Jane told him. "Only after New Year's Eve did everything start working for me, when I got my first badge in Rustboro."

Keith nodded, understanding full-well what Jane meant. He'd felt the same, though he had started with the Mauville Gym. "Everyone has that, I think. Catching new Pokémon, just getting to know them and what they're like, and then trying to care for yourself and them." A cyclist passed them, eyes firmly fixed on the road ahead. Keith thought the man insane. "I think I now understand why everyone always says it's better to go together at first." He stretched out. "That's the past. Now, we have eight badges and a lot of time to do stuff. Anything you want to do?"

Jane thought it over as they descended a long set of stairs that brought them to the highest level of houses in Cyllage. "How about we just… Go on travelling? All of us did last year. Except you, I mean."

Keith hadn't been able to do anything special because he had only received his last badge at the start of November, in Sootopolis. Travelling back home would've just taken so much time for maybe three days of being there, so he had just gone straight to Ever Grande after a week of relaxation. Jane, and Danny and Max, on the other hand, had all gotten their eighth badges around the end of September, giving them a lot more time to do stuff. Jane had just continued travelling as if she still needed badges, while he remembered Danny and Max somehow ending up on Dewford all the way from Lilycove. He'd have to ask why they went there. "Geosenge, then? When it's a lot less hot?"

"Beach sounds good for the next few days," Jane agreed softly. "Not like we have places to be, and I know you like it there." She stopped him. "And don't think I haven't seen you look," she whispered in his ear, adding a peck on the cheek before walking off again, a spring in her step.

Between the sun and his blush, Keith was amazed his face didn't explode from all the heat.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The room was empty, silent, grey, stone, no place he had ever been before, yet familiar. Mist wafted across the floor, hiding Max's feet but not much more. Objects stuck out here and there, blurred despite the glasses on his face – Max saw them fog over in the morning chill.

There was an exit, but when Max took steps towards it, the door… Vanished. Straight up and disappeared. He shook his head violently, but even that did nothing to make everything reappear. All it did was give him a small headache, and he massaged his temples to get rid of it.

Then he heard something from behind.

Somehow, Pokémon had made their way in. There was a xatu, a banette, a mightyena, a haunter, and… a… kirlia.

He'd know that Pokémon anywhere.

All of them wore the same mournful look as best they could, and despite Max walking towards them, he didn't close the distance. Before Max could wonder about that, the room vanished, and Ever Grande appeared; the boy standing on the same hill that had been his favourite hang-out the December before.

At least, it looked like Ever Grande. It was hard to tell because the island was ablaze. Max made to grab for poliwhirl on his belt, but there were no pokéballs there. Why had he forgotten to put it on that morning? He never did that.

He could only watch helplessly as the inferno consumed the island; buildings collapsing into rubble and smoke and sparks. Nothing was spared; from the smallest hostel to the main stadium: everything _burned_ ; the acrid smell of flame settling in his nose.

A scream, and then…

Max's eyes opened into darkness; his thin sleeping bag _drenched_ with sweat, breathing rapid and shallow. The smell of _burning_ was still in his nose, mixing with the hot night air. Nearby, he heard soft breathing, and an indistinct low murmur – either Danny or Serena. He couldn't tell.

He evacuated the sleeping bag and tried to hold on to everything he'd just seen and felt. There was a stone room… A dungeon? No, it was more familiar than that. And there were five Pokémon. A mightyena, a… Damn, he'd forgotten already. A mightyena, three other Pokémon, and his own kirlia. And then Ever Grande burned.

A piece of cloth laid itself on Max's shoulder, soothingly cold, and the rest of honedge floated into view. Max didn't need his glasses to know the Ghost was giving him a worried look. "Nightmare," he whispered softly, reaching for his shoes and slipping into them after getting the dirt off of his feet.

Honedge had floated over to one of the three sleeping Pokémon. As Max rose, manectric padded over to him softly, rubbing her head against his leg. There was no real static – she had discharged some hours ago – but it still woke Max up a bit more.

They walked. A few minutes only, but they walked. When he finally sat back down, Max could see the last quarter moon in the sky, a clear half-disc among stars. Maybe it was like three? Three thirty? Way too early, but nightmares didn't care.

At least he hadn't woken the others up. Neither of them had been sleeping all that well ever since… Ever since Olympia's prediction. Max had risked a call to Hoenn that very night, and he'd been able to put it out of his mind a bit. Throwing himself into training helped. They had had more trouble, and it had gotten to the point that Serena had just fallen asleep over lunch a few days after; exhausted. Danny hadn't been much better. This night was the first night in a while they hadn't used swablu to Sing them to sleep. Max had skipped out, though.

They – all of them, but Serena most of all – had been terrified once they'd really thought through the predictions. How could they not? There was a world-threatening thing coming up, marching, slouching towards them. Despite the best efforts of the G-men, the Kalos Police, the International Police, and probably more organisations, they had no idea where or when everything was going to happen. At least, Max assumed so – the International Police officer who had come to visit them had hinted that much. Kind and stern man, with a bit of a weird way of speaking, but competent.

Worst of all: he couldn't talk to anyone about it. Nobody was in Kalos to talk to. He'd written Ash in the hours waiting for Hoenn to wake up, but even now, ten days later, Professor Sycamore hadn't called to contact them that there was a letter waiting for them. He didn't dare risk calling Lance or Reginald again. Professor Birch would tell their parents. He had his limits. Luckily, they knew nothing for now. Probably better that way. He could deal with being grounded for weeks after all was done.

If the world was still there.

Least Lance and Reginald had sent help. Two large bottles of Full Restore extract. One dose guaranteed to rejuvenate any Pokémon in ten minutes. Didn't heal injuries, internal or external, though. Lance's letter with the bottles said more help would come. Later, sadly. Max wasn't sure why. Couldn't they send more now? The world was in danger. Why would they wait? It didn't make sense!

A tongue licked his face, both cheeks. They weren't as wet as he expected when manectric stopped. Burning eyes explained that. A sigh. "Get my belt," he croaked out.

Bagon, clefairy, espurr, sceptile, honedge, manectric. Four came out, two were out. All immediately saw him, and crept close to him. Warmth didn't matter: they wanted to be with him. From bagon; clingy yet independent, to sceptile; aloof yet committed. They were there for him.

He wasn't sure if he could be there for them. "Gu…" Max started softly before a lump in his throat stopped him. His heart pounded in his chest; stomach clenching and unclenching. "'m sorry. So sorry. So—"

Sceptile put his finger on Max's lips as espurr jumped onto Max's shoulder. Grassy fingers trailed smooth cheeks, wet with tears and slobber. "Tile. Sceptile," his starter said solemnly, nodding in approval.

Cries racked his body.

 **~~§~~§~~**

It was around seven when Danny got out of his sleeping bag. He'd been awake for maybe fifteen minutes; long enough to wake him up and to realise that Serena and Max were somehow sleeping through the chirping of what sounded like a ton of fletchling nearby. They hadn't been what had woken Danny up, but now that they had started their songs, he wasn't going to get more sleep.

Only when he got up did he see that Max was nowhere to be seen. Zorua was still curled into Serena's sleeping bag, while drapion greeted his trainer rising for the day with a claw that moved to point… away? Danny shook his head. He had a friend to find.

He threw a shirt over his torso before noticing another thing. Max's belt was also gone, but his pack looked undisturbed from the night before. That set him on edge even more: there was no reason for Max to be away and not be dressed. It was actually sort of chilly around dawn now, though it'd be scorching soon enough anyway. "Drapion?" he whispered, careful to not wake Serena. "Where's Max?"

The scorpion pointed in the same direction again, and Danny felt like hitting himself. Now it made sense. He quickly finished dressing, except for his shoes because the cold ground was weirdly comfortable under his feet, and went in search of his best friend.

What he found was… Painful. Another time, with different details, it'd be adorable. Now? Nothing but painful.

Max was half-laying on sceptile, one arm hanging motionlessly by the Grass-type's side, the other invisible to Danny. The starter was likewise asleep, as was espurr in the crick of Max's neck and the honedge leaning against sceptile near Max's dangling arm. The other three Pokémon were awake, and not at all surprised to see him. Manectric tilted her head at him, half-turning to her Trainer before settling down in a position Danny recognised from growlithe and arcanine. 'Don't come closer,' it screamed.

Bagon and clefairy were just sitting there, and they looked… Lost. Hopeless.

Danny beckoned one of them over, and bagon was the one to answer. They walked about sixty feet before Danny knelt by the dragon. "If I give it to you, can you drag Max's clothing over here?" he asked in a soft whisper, receiving a cautious nod. "Okay. Come with me. I'll give it and then I'll… I'll go do other stuff." Like run interference.

Serena did not need to see Max like this. Danny hadn't wanted to see this either, he realised, but he had. If he could, he would gladly wipe his memory of this. There were some things you just didn't ever need to see.

Seeing your best friend; a boy so… so _strong_ that it made you wonder how he kept it all together… Seeing him lying over his starter, face, torso, and reptilian skin covered in dried tears from where Max had literally cried himself into an exhausted sleep… No. Just no.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The Couriway Showcase Theme Performance was made for Serena, Max felt as Monsieur Pierre explained. Small and nimble Pokémon, and answering questions? That was something she could definitely do – not as if they hadn't practised answering Pokémon trivia before, and zorua fit the first part.

The Theme Performance was weird, though. You _had_ to have a small Pokémon, which were common enough but there had been one girl who couldn't participate, and it was outside. It wasn't as hot as earlier that week, luckily, but it was bright enough to wear sunglasses. They came in handy now, hiding bags under his eyes from most people's view.

Sleep had been shit since… Since that night. He woke up three, four, five times a night. Swablu Singing didn't help. Naps staved off the worst, but…

No, that was not what he wanted to think about. There was a Showcase to watch and that was all he was going to focus on.

Serena was up in the first round, zorua already waiting at the start of the maze that a couple of dugtrio had created in the sand. He'd be facing a vulpix and a shinx, but Max didn't know any of Serena's opponents.

The only question was whether Serena would get all of the answers right, or just four out of five. The big difference with the other Quiz Performance that Max had watched was that there would be five questions guaranteed, and everyone could answer. The maze was only relevant when it came to breaking ties. It was apparently some kind of experiment.

The first question wasn't exactly hard, and Max saw Serena write down the answer with a wide smile. it helped that the question was practically made for her. Asking about which Pokémon could possess various appliances… Psh. Easy.

"That's a hard question," Danny said as the Pokémon raced through the maze for the fifth time. "Asking about signature moves of Legendary Pokémon? Bit different from normal, isn't it?"

"The questions scale up in difficulty, apparently. Also, it's lugia." He felt Danny shift. "I guess you didn't know?"

The lack of an answer was answer enough. Luckily for Serena, the only girl who had it right had also failed two easier questions earlier, meaning that the Vaniville Performer would go through with four correct answers to the three of the other two.

Answering the questions was at least a bit of a distraction, Max found. As long as he was busy with that, he wasn't busy thinking about other stuff,. The lack of Pokémon knowledge on some of the girls, and even young women, helped. He knew that not everyone was as smart as he was, but really, thinking that flygon evolved from shelgon? That answer almost physically hurt him, and he was pretty happy to see that Performer be eliminated on the time her pikachu needed to get through the maze.

The Holo Caster rang just after the tenth and last group had finished, and Max nearly didn't catch the mournful violins – he'd felt like changing his ringtone a month back – until the small crescendo about ten seconds in. "Yeah? Who is this?" he asked as he jumped down from the stands. It earned him an annoyed look from one of the organisers, but he didn't care.

"Hey Max, it's Clemont," the Lumiose Gym Leader greeted him as a loud cheer for the remaining contestants went up. "I'll keep it short. Bonnie turns twelve on the twelfth, and there's a pretty big celebration after she gets out of school the day before that. Are you three interested in coming?"

"I think so?" Max said, glancing up at Danny, who gave a quizzical look in return. "I mean, Serena and Bonnie got on great, so she's all for it probably,. I don't mind, neither should Danny, and it's not like going back to Lumiose is a problem."

"Xatu makes life easy, doesn't he?" Clemont said, and Max could imagine the smirk. He mirrored it. "I'll get you the details later – go watch Serena win a Key!"

By the time Max had explained everything to Danny, who was fine with backtracking to Lumiose for that, the first contestant had already done her Freestyle Performance. Max had seen a little of it, and hadn't been too impressed. It was okay, but hula-hooping with a Magical Leaf hoop just wasn't all that inspiring.

Serena was second, coming out in a blood red dress that stood out sharply against braixen next to her. She bowed once, nodded to the side, and took braixen's hands.

The dance reminded Max of some or another formal dance. At first, it was just a regular dance between human and Pokémon, on slow and sappy music, but about fifteen seconds in, Serena twirled braixen around her, ending with the Fire-type starter's hand hanging on to the human by mere fingers.

That was when the fire started.

Flame flowed into a ring that surrounded them, maybe five feet away from both of them. A very steady five feet, at that, Max noticed. It never wavered, it never flickered, and it never came close enough to burn. Nor did it go far enough away that it'd look like no threat at all. It moved with them as though it was part of the dance. Serena never looked at it either, further giving the impression that everything was normal.

A second, third, _fourth_ ring was added to it all, and still braixen kept everything under control even as human and Pokémon moved over stone with calm and grace that came from lots and lots of practice. Murmuring sprung up as every ring was added, before being shushed by neighbours. The same happened when Serena revealed the lower half of her knee brace as she bent over one way, and Max had to grin at that. Sneaky Serena. The brace wasn't really needed any longer for regular stuff, though she still wore it for travelling, and for her to wear it now… It had to be on purpose.

Still, even without that, it was a bloody impressive Performance. Max knew his sister would have been hard-pressed to beat the show, and she wouldn't have been able to do it either. Blaziken just wasn't as graceful as braixen was, and back as a combusken, he definitely didn't have the pyrokinetic skills either.

Admittedly, that was made up for by being a lot more physical, but still. It was amazing work.

"That's a win probably," Max said as braixen dispelled the flame upon the song's end. "My sister would be hard pressed to beat that."

As it turned out, Max was right, and with her second outright majority win – in a field of _ten_ no less – Serena got herself a ticket to the Master Class Showcase next month.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The conference room in the depths of Lysandre Labs held a one short of a dozen people. Strong men and women; their conviction unparalleled; sat there, waiting for their leader to arrive, though they did not know he already had. The advantages of a secret passage.

He saw the five Scientists and their second in commands: Aliana and Darius; Bryony and Martin; Celosia and Joshua; Mable and Fiona; Xerosic and Stanley. Malva was also there, which had led to a few raised eyebrows on those who hadn't needed to know her identity beforehand, but none had actually commented on her inclusion. Good. They recognised her superior position innately, as they should.

Half a minute later, Lysandre entered the conference room at a brisk pace, a secretary behind him breaking off and handing everyone a clipboard with their respective assignments. "I welcome everyone to this final meeting," the leader of Team Flare said as he sat down, prompting everyone to look at him. "The clipboard before you holds all the information we have gathered on your respective target. Use this information to formulate whichever plan you feel is best for our success."

"Lysandre," Malva spoke up; the only one there who could get away without using an honorific for him. "I heard this morning that Siebold will be out of the country next week. Mable is not needed to accost my one colleague and Diantha. One team should be sufficient."

Siebold being out of the country – and Drasna stuck in some mountainous village south-east of Snowbelle – made Malva's task a lot easier. "Very well. Those who have a destination, think carefully if what you have will be enough for the task at hand."

It was Bryony who broke the silence, unsurprisingly. "After what happened in Anistar a while back, getting a second team's probably good."

Mable agreed, and for a while, all that was talked about were trivial minutiae: the kind that was needed to ensure that everything would work perfectly. This phase lasted about fifteen minutes, and at its end, Lysandre rose again. "Scientists, seconds in command, Malva," he stated as he stood regally. "Our quest for a new, more beautiful, world is nearly at an end. By this time next week, this world will start to feel the cleansing touch that is so desperately needed to save its beauty and majesty. And, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank you. Without you, this would still be but a vision; unenforceable and useless. Now, we stand upon the brink of a new world. One without the filth that has _infested_ us and our society. We will bring that new world, for we are Team Flare. We are those whose convictions are strongest; whose rule is just; whose vision is righteous.

"On the day itself, our fight will be hard, and just as you should expect no mercy, you should give none. The old and decadent elites made their choice; their comfortable bed of flowers suddenly a bed of briar. In their arrogance, they rule the world, unwilling to do what is needed to preserve its beauty. For that treason, there is but one punishment."

Everyone nodded, but Lysandre had not finished just yet. "Now and forever, we are Team Flare. We are prophets, we are harbingers, and we are bound by our burning conviction that this world must. Be. Cleansed. Beauty! Above! All!"

"Beauty above all!" the subordinates echoed, and one by one, they rose, most walking past Lysandre for a final farewell. Those who did not were those who would be with him, and Malva, who stayed put.

"There is one thing you should know," the Elite Four member said as soon as the last Scientist – Xerosic, ever the sycophant – left. "There are rumours swirling around League HQ. Rumours that we are soon to act."

"Will this be a problem?"

"Potentially. Our timetable serves us well, but Diantha's itinerary for next week was changed, and I have yet to even glimpse a copy of it. Working around her gardevoir is infuriating."

"Keep me up to date. Of all the obstacles, she is the one who has the most chance at stopping us, and while I will be commanding from the field, it would be preferable if she was sufficiently delayed."

"You are not afraid that one of the others will not be able to stop the relevant Gym Leaders?"

"That's what Xerosic and Aliana are for," Lysandre stated calmly. "In truth, I expect one of them to come charging our base after locating it. No, that is not the right word," he corrected himself. "I am _hoping_ one of them does. I want to see their expression at the moment of cleansing."

Perhaps it could even be that infernal Olympia. Yes. Victory would be sweetest if she were to watch yveltal start its sacred work.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _September 4_

 _It has been two and a half weeks since the news of Kalos broke to me, and help is starting to make its way there. Several operatives are nearing the end of their assignments, and all leaves have been rescinded. Half a dozen operatives will descend on Kalos in the coming weeks, all good Trainers, distinguished in G-men service. They will join myself and one other there, and I am still uncertain if I should be glad or frustrated that he went there of his own accord._

 _On the one hand, it is insubordination. On the other, he has a personal stake in the matter. It is not an abstract to him; the information came to light via his friends. At least I was able to impress upon him the need for secrecy. It would be a safe assumption that Flare has put Maple and Birch under surveillance after their repeated thwarting of Flare plans. We cannot show our hand too early, and so secrecy must be maintained, to others' detriment._

 _May dusknoir take my soul if harm comes to them because of this._

From: Journal of Lance, Grand Champion of Kanto (year 6).

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Everyone has their limits, and foresight tends to show them.


	27. Flare Ascendant

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 2** **7** **:** **Flare Ascendant**

Just as the last few times they'd been in Lumiose, they stayed in the Pokémon Center right next to Prism Tower. It was just too central a location to not want to stay at. Everything was nearby, as they had found out in January and in May.

Granted, Clemont had done some kind of reservation thing to make sure that they could actually stay there back in May. It was, after all, in the middle of the Lumiose Conference, and while the stadiums were closer to the edge of town, it was still a very popular Center for precisely those reasons. But, Max reflected, it was good to have friends in high places. Literally, in Clemont's case.

They'd arrived in Lumiose the day before, after three Teleport jumps from Gloire City. They had spent a day traversing the mountain passes – in far too hot weather – to get xatu to know the location for the Master Class Showcase, which would be held in the first weekend of October. Once that was done, they had gone to Anistar, where they stayed the night. The next morning, xatu dropped them off at a small Pokémon Center on the far side of Durocor, and after dinner that night, they had gone to Lumiose, ending up in the eastern Pokémon Center.

A quick call and some gogoat travel later, they had walked up to Prism Tower, catching Clemont as he exited for the night. They'd gone out for ice cream together, but the blond-haired boy had begged off soon after, saying that he still needed to wrap Bonnie's present.

It was about twelve now, and Max, Danny, and Serena were just wasting time inside after an early lunch. Danny was watching cartoons again, not even caring about Serena's half-joking admonition that he should be too old for that as she had sat down with him earlier. She was out in the courtyard now, wanting some fresh air, while Max was lying on his bed. He'd kept half an eye on the television, but a new issue of Pokémon Illustrated had come out a few days before, and today was the first day he had been able to pick up a copy. He was also half-tempted to just take a post-lunch nap. Uninterrupted sleep was still a luxury, as it had been for most of the past three weeks.

The small ball lying against his breastbone shifted as Max turned the page, reminding him that he was to visit Professor Sycamore before going to Bonnie's party, which would be held in Prism Tower. Travel was no issue, and the Professor had told him to come by after _his_ lunch. Max'd probably leave in about an hour for that. Still plenty of time for a nap, and he put his magazine away.

The sound of police sirens made Max and Danny look up at the window, and then each other, both wondering what happened. Before either could speak, however, the door opened, banging against the wall. "Max, Danny!"

"Ser… Clemont?!" Max said as he saw who had come in as well. The Gym Leader looked like he'd crawled through a garbage bin to get here; patches and smudges of dirt and other stuff on his overalls and even his backpack. His hair was unkempt, and the glasses were also dirty, "Wha… Why are you here?"

The moment Max saw Clemont start to speak, he _knew_ that it was not going to be good news. "Team Flare is attacking!"

Four words. A simple sentence of four words as more sirens joined the hubbub outside was all it took to chill Max to his core. "Attacking your Gym? Why?"

"I don't know!" Clemont answered Danny's question. "I was up on one of the observation decks, and I saw these ten Team Flare guys just coming out of one of the buildings, and they immediately ran towards Prism Tower. I barely had enough time to cut power to the lifts before they entered."

"But how did you es..." Max started, a brainwave overtaking him. "You have a garbage chute that high up? How are you alive?"

"My Clemontic Bouncy Castle and my Alolan raichu," the Gym Leader replied, tapping the strap of his backpack. "All of the sewers underneath are connected, so I just climbed up through a manhole in the Center courtyard, about ten feet away from Serena."

A quick glance over, and a nod. "The Holo Casters have stopped working too," Serena said. "Heard someone complain about it about five minutes before Clemont climbed up."

"The entire network is down," Clemont corrected. "I saw the videophones when we hurried here. They were out of order."

Danny was already switching channels quickly, finding one that had a scrolling news ticker at the bottom, large letters announcing that there was a disturbance in the telephone and Holo Caster networks, and that Lysandre Labs was aware of the disturbance to the former. "Wait! Lysandre Labs!" Clemont yelled, causing Max and Danny's heads to snap to him. "The Team Flare guys came out of Lysandre Café."

That was a weird coincidence, and he wasn't sure if he liked it. "Is there anything else there?" Max asked as he walked over to his small backpack, tossing various things out. "Something underneath or something?"

"There was a lot of work being done there like two years ago, but I just thought it was interior work," Clemont admitted. "I've been in there once or twice, but I never liked it. Too snobbish for this son of a mechanic. After what I saw… Might be a good idea to visit again."

"You don't want to retake Prism Tower?" Danny wondered. "I mean, we can help."

Serena hummed agreement, but Clemont shook his head, Max noticed from the corner of his eye. "I… I can't ask you to do that. There's no reason for you to be involved. Let..."

"Stuff a sock in it," Max shot back. He tried to keep his voice level, but he wasn't sure he had succeeded. "We've had our share of run-ins with Team Flare. Remember the raid on the Durocor Musée Central? The anonymous group of trainers who fought Team Flare in the museum itself? That was us." Beside him, Danny and Serena nodded to tell Clemont that he wasn't lying. "Please let us help."

The tallest teenager in the room – by maybe two inches over Danny – gave them a guarded look. "If we go, you will defer to me," he spoke up eventually, voice low, but level. "If I tell you to leave, you leave with xatu. I won't… What are you doing?"

Max had walked over to his bed, starting to shove a few healing items into his backpack just as Clemont stopped his rambling about being the one in charge. Max was fine with that – nothing he hadn't done before, and Clemont was a Gym Leader. "Just a bit of preparation." He made a snap decision, grabbing one of the four bottles that had been sent to them. "Full Restore extract. Might come in useful. And don't ask where we got it. The answer's too long." He handed it to a dumbfounded Clemont before slinging the backpack with the three remaining bottles and various other healing items over his shoulder.

"Did you even hear what I was saying?!"

"You're the Gym Leader, you're in charge," Max summarised airily before clearing his throat. "I promise to do as I'm told." Danny and Serena echoed the sentiment, with different words. "Whereto?"

"You are taking this way too flippantly," Clemont muttered not quite under his breath, though he gave no sign of having seen Max hear him say that. "Please don't make me regret this."

"Not planning to."

Clemont sighed once last time before looking out the window. "Emotionally, I want Prism Tower back. It's my Gym, and even without any of my Pokémon there, I don't want Flare to be in the Tower," he said. "Logically, it makes more sense to see where they came from. The police probably has Prism Tower under siege already. If we tell them to just hold the perimeter, there's not a lot Team Flare can actually do apart from eat the snacks for Bonnie's party."

"Lysandre Café it is."

Five minutes, a Teleport or three, and a whispered planning session atop a roof later, they walked up to the closed Lysandre Café. Nothing was visible inside, and a sign proclaimed it closed, a note citing unexpected circumstances. The door didn't budge either. "How very convenient," Clemont drawled slowly, one hand on his chin. "They're never closed except for regular closing times, and I'd know – I walk here every day. I smell a rat."

Without waiting for any of the younger teens to reply, he sent out heliolisk, ordering the yellow Pokémon to blast the door off its hinges. The Alolan raichu was also sent out, shielding them from debris and smoothing over the gap that had been created to protect them from splinters.

The inside was as snobbish as Clemont had made it out to be. The tables were far too high quality for a café – even worse than the high-end restaurant in Durocor – and antique vases and glasses lined the walls, with a large cabinet full of fancy porcelain directly opposite the entrance. One or two of the vases had shattered on the floor or tables when heliolisk had blown the door up, but that was the only other damage. "Pretentious."

Clemont nodded at Danny's remark, his two Pokémon spreading out into the staff areas. A third appeared for a second before vanishing into something up above. "Camera. Rotom'll disable the system and the silent alarm. Not that the police can come."

"Are you a burglar in your spare time?" Max quipped as he checked underneath the bar, hoping to find something hidden. "You've really got a plan for everything."

"Well, it's how I'm going to get back into Prism Tower. There's a surprising amount of computer-related stuff in there." The Gym Leader turned around, nearly knocking a vase over. "Found something?" Two Pokémon cries in the negative followed, as did a muttered growl. "Nothing there… But they did come from here. What are we missing..."

Then the china cabinet exploded outward, but raichu immediately blasted back with a wave of psionic energy that slammed into all of them. Max was relatively unaffected, half his body hidden by the bar, but he saw Serena and Danny get knocked onto the ground. A Dragon Pulse followed, but heliolisk blocked it with a Dragon Tail. "Swinub, Icy Wind!"

Raichu pulled a Pokémon and a human in as the attack was launched, covering the tyrunt and his trainer in frost, while heliolisk delivered a second Dragon Tail, this one straight to the tyrunt's jaw. It was hard enough that Max saw a tooth or two fly out, but the Trainer behind caught his attention. "Team Flare."

The grunt – who barely looked a day over twenty, if that – shivered and shrunk under their combined gazes. Probably more the Pokémon than the teenagers. He was suddenly lifted into the air, a hand holding him up. A hand coming from Clemont's… backpack? "What are you doing here?" the Gym Leader demanded. The jovial Clemont of earlier was gone, in his place the annoyed Gym Leader of Lumiose. "And why are you attacking my Gym?" No answer was forthcoming, and raichu's cheeks sparked. "Answer me!"

"I don't know anything!" the man exclaimed. "I was just guarding! Please don't hurt me!"

Clemont gave him a long look before manipulating his robotic hand. The landing was hard and the Team Flare member yelped in pain – he'd landed in the shattered china. Max didn't think the Gym Leader cared too much. "Teleport him and the tyrunt to the police," came the order, and Max quickly sent xatu out, whispering orders while Clemont examined the tunnel. "Do you think they're expecting us?"

"They'd be idiots to not expect _you_ ," Max replied as raichu moved all of the debris to the side, soft scraping and tinkling audible in the surprisingly quiet café. "This is Team Flare. They do plan for who could face them." As they had done for Professor Sycamore and the museum. "The real question is, how many of them are trying to find you in Prism Tower, and how many are here?"

"I saw ten of them come out of here." Clemont half-turned to look at Max. "No sense in overthinking it now. We're on this path." He gestured towards the tunnel. "Once xatu returns, we'll go."

The wait for xatu wasn't too long, maybe a minute, but it was a long minute at that. Max spent the time looking at the others; he was a bit nervous himself, but nothing he couldn't handle. He'd done stuff like this before, and he'd do it again in a heartbeat. Danny and Serena also looked like he was expecting them to; both of them fidgeting a tiny bit, but otherwise ready for what was to come. Serena, in particular, looked like she wanted to kick some Flare ass.

The Gym Leader, on the other hand, was more of a riddle. His face was guarded, and wordless muttering made Max suspect like he was trying to figure something out. Whatever it was, it was interrupted by xatu's return, and wordlessly, Clemont returned heliolisk for a luxray. "X-ray vision," he explained, reminding Max of another time, another underground adventure. "Warn us if you see something. Raichu, deflect attacks. Can one of you take the rear?"

Danny muttered agreement, sending out froslass as Max returned swinub for now. More Pokémon just didn't look useful – the tunnel was barely big enough to let two of them walk side by side.

They entered, temporary darkness giving way to a reasonably lit hallway after they turned two corners. The walls and floor were various shades of red, but nothing was in sight, nor could they hear anything apart from their own footsteps, from the heavy footfalls of Danny and Clemont to the swoosh of raichu and froslass floating in the air.

The lack of opposition nearly tempted Max to make a comment about things being too easy, but that would be asking for them to be found.

Three hallways later, they found themselves at a locked metal door; a passcode panel on the wall beside it. There had been other paths to take, and once they had to pick a side in a fork, but luxray had immediately turned left. "Rotom?"

Max preferred this way of entering a room over the other way he'd had experience with. The fact that the room they had entered was empty also helped. The sight of working computers – monitors on – was most welcome as well, especially with Clemont's Ghost-type around. "Jackpot."

Rotom went to work immediately, while Max took stock of the room they were in. It was larger than he had originally thought, and the reason for that was another bar at the other end. Half of the room looked like an office, and half like a cafeteria. He even saw a mug on one of the tables. "Found anything on the attack on the Prism Tower?"

The computer beeped, and Max saw a document open on two of the nearby screens. He grabbed a chair and started skimming, even as Clemont did the same on the other screen. Threat analysis, Clemont's known Pokémon, plan of entry, date and time… Holo Caster network shutdown? "Guys? Who is responsible for the Holo Caster network? Just Lysandre Labs?" he asked, hoping one of the Kalosians would know the answer better than he did.

"Just them. Partially responsible for the videophone network too. Something political, not sure what," Clemont answered cautiously as he read the document as well. "Why?"

"In Coumarine, the Holo Caster network was down when Team Flare tried to make a grab for Professor Sycamore's Garchompite. It was down for the Anistar attack that Olympia stopped. And now it's down here too, and the plan calls for it. That's too much of a coincidence for me."

"Three times is enemy work," Danny whispered, and Max gave him an exasperated look. Was now really the time? "What? I liked reading those."

"Danny is right," Clemont said without looking away from his screen, the scroll wheel rattling as he skimmed. "Three times is too much of a coincidence. They must have someone in there. Someone high-up. Also considering, you know..." The robotic hand made a circular motion. "This."

"Gotta agree. This is too complicated to be normal," Danny told them as he leant in beside Max, who moved his chair to the side. "Thanks."

Then, the screen split in half, a new document opening. "Rotom?" Clemont asked, sounding confused. "What did you do..."

Max wasn't certain what exactly had caused Clemont to break off at first, but he soon found out what. The second document had the same highlights as the one he had just skimmed through, but this one was for Olympia in Anistar. Bolded – Rotom's doing no doubt – was one line, and when Max's eyes flicked left, he saw that the Ghost had done the same for the original document. "The same time? Simultaneous attacks?" Danny wondered. "I don't like where this is going."

The screen shifted again, showing two more locations: Cyllage and Shalour, and again, the date and time were the same. Quarter to twelve, today, September eleventh. "Lumiose, Anistar, Cyllage, Shalour, Pyrocorde, Laverre… That's six Gyms," Clemont muttered as a flicker announced a fifth and sixth document. "But why these six? Only Korrina and Wulfric have Mega Stones."

The documents vanished, replaced by an image of Kalos, shaded like a theme map from Max's old geography workbook. Geosenge was marked with a bright star, but before he could fully read what it was about, the computer switched off, as did the rest of the power. Serena yelped as the darkness surprised them, but it lasted for only a few seconds. Then, luxray started a low-level Spark to give them light to see by. "Not creepy at all. Not. Creepy. At. All."

Serena's sarcasm aside, the fact that Max could see luxray on high alert made him suspicious. Pokémon had better instincts than humans did. Rotom's reappearance didn't help either, as the little orange Pokémon flitted around in mid-air, clearly agitated.

"Danny. Max. Serena. Behind me. Now."

Max tensed, the harsh whisper freezing him for a second. If Clemont said that… "It's not a normal outage, is it?" he whispered back as the three of them did as the Gym Leader ordered.

Whatever Clemont was about to say was drowned out by a roar of flame; a blue-purple Inferno suddenly appearing and blinding Max. He heard the crackle of electricity, smelt the burnt ozone, felt the explosion's shockwave leave a ringing in his ears. Four more Pokémon appeared: Clemont's entire team now out. Raichu, luxray, rotom, heliolisk, magnezone, jolteon were arrayed in front of them, all of them providing light in the darkness.

And at the other end of the room were three Trainers, their silhouettes barely visible, several Pokémon by their side. A chandelure gave enough light to show a rhydon, two liepard, and an umbreon. "You shouldn't have come here, Gym Leader!" one of them yelled. "Get them!"

And Clemont's Pokémon cut loose.

Six Thunderbolts lanced out, about half of the charge bleeding through into the rhydon's Lightningrod. The other half blasted both liepard, who had ventured a little too far out from the rhydon, back, sending them into the bar at the other end, shattered glass ringing clearly through the room despite the sound. Umbreon was also hit, but the eeveelution weathered the attack. Then it found itself facing the heliolisk, whose Dragon Tail immediately forced a dodge-roll. The same Dragon Tail, in one movement, deflected a Shadow Ball into the rhydon, who took it and a Flash Cannon to the abdomen.

Hang on, that Shadow Ball had come from their side.

Luxray was in the middle of it all, snarling and biting at two mightyena who hadn't been there moments ago, and more Pokémon joined the fray, including a golem, making the total count about two to one in Flare's favour. Tables perished as the Rock-types grabbed them as weapons, but wood splintered easily under attacks. Max brought a hand to his belt, eager to send out his own electric-type to help, but a hand on his wrist stopped it. "You need to go. Now."

"We can fight!" Max replied heatedly. "We—"

Clemont twisted his wrist, interrupting Max's words with pain. "You promised to listen, Max. You need to go. Tell someone about Geosenge. I don't know what they're planning, but it can't be good if they're attacking six Gyms for it." A Metal Sound pierced Max's eardrums, though Clemont seemed unaffected. "You need to go!"

"Will you be okay?" Serena asked before another explosion drowned out whatever she wanted to say.

Glancing a look at the fight – umbreon and chandelure barely managing to keep track of heliolisk, rhydon continuously assaulted by various non-electrical ranged attacks – Max was acutely reminded that Clemont was a Gym Leader, and miles beyond what they could do. "He's right. We'd only hinder him." Xatu came out.

"I'm not sure about that. Jolteon, here!"

The Lightning Pokémon disengaged from its fight with the golem without any issue, using its superior speed to great effect and setting up a Light Screen in front of them as it stopped near them. "Use Helping Hand on xatu."

"But..."

"The further you get, the better it is. This should put you within one Teleport of Geosenge. Now go!"

The room lit up with white and blue light as Max, Danny, and Serena all touched their hands to xatu. "Good lu—"

The rest of Max's wish was lost to the ether as they hurtled through nothingness, reappearing somewhere bright, white, and cold, and a foot in the air. The landing was automatic, though he closed his eyes against the sudden light; so different from where they had been. Then,, he heard a loud gasp. A very familiar one.

"What are you doing here?!"

 **~~§~~§~~**

The whoosh of teleportation made Clemont exhale rather happily, considering the situation he was in. He hadn't been afraid they'd get in the way, like Max had implied they might. On the contrary, he really wanted them here to help him retake Prism Tower once these idiots – who had severely underestimated the firepower he was bringing to this fight – were dealt with. Xatu could have Teleported them onto one of the observation decks – one of their flying Pokémon could have scouted to see if one was unoccupied – and the flank would have taken Team Flare by surprise.

Unfortunately, it had been out of his hands for over two months.

Once the tunnel had appeared, courtesy of that Team Flare grunt blasting apart the fancy china, Clemont had known what needed to be done. Olympia had been clear. _"In the future, you will find yourself underground,_ " she had said just before Teleporting away with her alakazam after their spar. _"You and others. Yet even as you are there, they are needed elsewhere. Send them."_

He had spent the better part of the rest of that day figuring out what Olympia could have meant, but he had reached no conclusions. Honestly, he had put it out of his mind since – the first prediction Olympia had given him, upon his ascension to the position, had taken nearly two years to shake out, and certainly not for lack of trying. In fact, he had only completed his robot last week. Bonnie was still put out about the name, but Clembot was a perfect name.

Luckily, neither of them were in the Gym when it came under siege. Bonnie was at school a few miles away, while Clembot was at home. His father was going to bring it. He'd planned to unveil the robot at the party, complete with a Happy Birthday programmed into the memory and a confetti cannon for an arm.

Now, he had his doubts whether there'd be a party at all. Once he was done here, he'd need to get Prism Tower back, and then there'd be endless talk about it all: to the police, to the city mayor, to the press… He'd be lucky to get home before midnight.

But, if he was fast, forensics could probably get everything done before too long, which'd free Prism Tower up for Bonnie's party. Best to knock these guys out quick, then.

His Pokémon were way ahead of him. The golem and rhydon had both vanished from sight, and without a hole, Clemont assumed that had been due to a case of sudden inability to fight. "Magnezone, call a target," he told his Pokémon as he scanned the room and what was left arrayed against him. "Rotom, jolteon, luxray follow." Four sort-of simultaneous Thunderbolts ought to be plenty sufficient to knock out any Pokémon. Magnezone served as the mark, and once the Electric-Steel hybrid had hit, the other three Pokémon had the easiest shots of their week. Heliolisk and raichu retreated under the cover of the four Pokémon firing.

Honestly, even Max and Danny would've made short work of these guys. Not as efficiently, but really, this was too easy. It…

Okay, that golbat flying high and dive-bombing him was actually smart. Too bad he'd spotted it in time, and a quick swipe with his robotic arm had knocked it low enough for heliolisk to bodily slam it into a wall, followed by raichu taking one of the metal desks and squishing golbat behind it. The panel behind had cracked, it was revealed after the desk fell onto the ground with a loud clang, and Clemont wasn't entirely sure the bat would ever fly again without immediate medical help, but that was not his problem. They attacked him, his Gym, his city, and that was a step too far. "Heliolisk, get them."

The Generator Pokémon – one of the ones Gustav had left him upon taking over, and one of the strongest Gym Pokémon as a result – slipped in between four Pokémon, twisting and turning just so that a mightyena and a houndoom butted heads before being electrocuted from afar. A quick roll later, and one of his human opponents had his legs swept out from underneath him.

In the chaos that followed – Pokémon rounding on heliolisk, but unsure how to attack without hurting their Trainers – a five-Pokémon Thunder knocked all but two out, and those two were quickly taken care of. Perhaps attacking other Trainers wasn't very sporting of him, but they had done it first and he had limits to his patience.

Besides, only one had actually been attacked. "That was pathetic," Clemont said as he studied the trio opposite him. He spotted a pin on the left one's collar, though none of them was wearing the visors that indicated a Team Flare Scientist. "I'd hope the ones you've sent to Prism Tower will be more of a challenge."

The leader – Clemont assumed – suddenly let out a wheezing laugh that racked his entire overweight body. "It was never about _beating_ you," he taunted in a voice that was higher than Clemont expected. "All we needed to do, was delay. Initiate lockdown!"

The walls rumbled, and something slammed into place as Clemont whirled around, spotting the door they had used to enter now overlaid with something deep black. "What did you do?"

"That's boron carbide in the doors. In case you went here first." Clemont turned a glare on the man. "Oh, recognise the material, do you? Then you know you cannot get out without specialised equipment. So, _Gym Leader._ Who's pathetic now?"

 **~~§~~§~~**

Keith was not having a good day. First had been a letter from home, with his mother worrying way too much about sableye, mightyena, and chimecho. Then a spar had gone sour when his opponent had been all arrogant about barely winning against hitmontop, and now that they were in the Geosenge Museum, some freak earthquake had nearly caused some of the ceiling to fall on top of them. If it hadn't been for an old lady's gardevoir, any of the five of them in the room could've taken concrete to the head. "Earthquakes aren't common in this part of Kalos, right?" he asked.

The tour guide – a teenager, reddish hair – shook his head, even as the gardevoir diverted the debris off to the side, away from all exhibits. "That strong? Maybe once every thirty years. That ceiling should never have cracked like it did. We _thought_ the building had been built up to code."

"Apparently not, dear," the old lady replied as she took a careful look at the painting of xerneas and yveltal in front of them. "Gardevoir, go check if there are wounded elsewhere, then return here."

The green-and-white Pokémon nodded before Teleporting out, and Keith walked up to his girlfriend, who was looking at the ceiling dubiously. "Afraid more of it will come down?" he asked.

"Earthquakes have aftershocks," Jane replied softly, a hand on her waist. "Without gardevoir..."

She didn't need to finish her sentence for Keith to finish her line of thought. Both of them had some Pokémon who could help, but none as good as the gardevoir. "Uh," Keith started, drawing the attention of both the tour guide and the old woman. The other boy had already run away. "Is it okay if… If we send out Pokémon to protect us against more debris?"

"Of course," the old woman replied, to his surprise. He'd addressed the employee, hadn't he? "The no Pokémon rule in our museum is more for young idiots who can't control their growlithe, not for something like this. What've you got, dearie? And your girlfriend too."

"I've skarmory."

"Pelipper," Jane said, enlarging a pokéball as she did so. "He knows Protect."

"That should work, don't you think, Grand-mère?" the employee said. "I'd help myself, but my kirlia's at home and the rest of my Pokémon aren't well-suited for that. So please do. Safer for all of us."

Skarmory and pelipper came out, the flapping of wings creating a small dust storm underneath where they were, but if that was all… "Right," Keith said, but then he saw the air in front of him shift and blur, before tearing just above the ground. A group of four appeared, instantly recognisable, and he let out a loud gasp as he saw Danny, Max, Serena, all Teleported by Max's xatu, fall about a foot. The boys landed okay, but Serena wobbled until Danny grabbed her, and xatu slumped bonelessly. "What are you doing here?!"

" _Keith?"_ Max said incredulously as he swept his dark blue hair out of his eyes. "Where the he… Geosenge Museum? What the actual shit?"

A small bottle came out of Max's backpack, and he knelt by the fallen xatu, feeding it something… A drink? Whatever it was, it smelled. "That's… Wow. Helping Hand really helped," Serena said as she stretched her leg – the one that had been injured. Then she noticed the debris. "What happened here?"

"Earthquake," the employee stated as he walked over to Max, helping to prop xatu up against a plinth before pulling the boy up. "What brings you here from a long distance away?"

"Team Flare." Keith felt his eyes widen at Max's statement. "They're doing something here in Geosenge, and they're attacking six Gyms at the same time. We need to stop them!"

Max made to turn, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Team Flare?" the employee stated, sounding like he wasn't sure he believed what Max had said. "I think you'd better explain. The short version will do, but a bit more wouldn't go amiss."

Danny spoke up for the first time that they were there, quickly explaining what had happened in Lumiose – and that alone had caused eyebrows to raise on both older teenager and his grandmother for some reason – before telling them about what had happened _under_ Lumiose, and all the information they had gleaned before the power went out.

"And what did that map show, dearie?"

"I don't know for sure," Max said hesitantly, hands opening and closing in nervousness. "I saw the key, but I didn't register it fully."

The grey-haired woman nodded. "I believe you," she stated calmly. "But it'd help if we knew what that map said in full. Luckily, I know a way," she added with a toothy smile.

Keith felt Jane about to ask something – probably the same question on his mind – but the gardevoir returning by its Trainer's side interrupted both of them momentarily, and then Max's loud "Of course!" did the rest.

"Of course what?" Jane asked, even as Max walked up to the fully evolved form of his wanted starter, an intense look of concentration coming over him. "Make sense, Max."

"Gardevoir can make someone relive a memory," the old woman said. "It's not the most well-known of abilities, nor is it well-understood. How do you know about it?"

"Been there, done that. Twice." Max had reached the Psychic-type, looking nearly straight into its deep-red eyes. He was maybe an inch shorter? "When you're ready."

Blue enveloped the gardevoir's arm, and it flared when the arm touched Max's cheek. The flash was bright enough to force Keith to blink, and when he reopened his eyes, he saw Max take a step or two back. "What did you see?"

"Estimated devastation of the area." The gardevoir echoed an agreement. "We have to-"

Another earthquake shook the museum, the floor under Keith's feet just slightly less solid than he wanted. Serena grabbed hold of Danny, and a Protect overhead mingled with an expanding dome of blue coming from the gardevoir.

It lasted maybe ten seconds, but more of the ceiling had come down, stopped without any issue. "A second earthquake?" Danny queried. "Aftershock?"

"Or something else," Max said darkly, shooting a glance at his xatu. The bird was awake, but still resting. "We've got to stop them."

"And why are _you_ going to do that?" the old woman said, drawing everyone's attention to her. Eyes behind glasses, slightly clouded with age, shot a sharp look at Max in particular. "You're a talented Trainer if that xatu's any sign, but you're barely older than my youngest grandson. You should contact the police."

"The Holo Caster is down," Danny interjected before Max could say something. He glanced sideways at his younger friend, seemingly hoping for something. "Lumiose videophones too. Shalour and Cyllage are under attack."

"Videophones here are down too," Jane said. "Saw it before leaving."

Something sunk into Keith's stomach; very unwelcome, almost nauseating. "So there's no contact to elsewhere, and the closest Gyms are unavailable?" he summed up, receiving a confirming nod in return. "What the hell are they planning?"

"Nothing good," Max replied darkly, checking his watch. "Maël, is there any place close to here that you think they might be hiding?"

It took Keith a moment to realise who Max had addressed. "There are excavations just outside of town..." the museum employee started hesitantly. "But I'm with my grandmother. We should really contact the police. Get their help."

"We could split up," Jane said softly, drawing everyone's attention. "You… Maël? You take one or two of us to the police to explain everything. The others go look."

"I'll go," Serena said immediately, jumping on the other girl's suggestion. Max gave her an unreadable look. "I'm not _that_ good in a fight, Max, and we both know that's going to happen."

Something passed between the two of them, but Keith had no idea what exactly. "I'll come along," Maël said, interrupting the wordless communication. "Might be worth something if there's a local with you. One more?"

Keith and his girlfriend locked eyes, both trying to divine the other's thoughts without speaking. It made sense for it to be one of them: Max and Danny were the stronger Trainers, and had more chance of beating Team Flare than either of them. Keith had fought them before, sort of, but after a moment's thought, he realised that that wasn't too important. "I'll go. I'm better at explaining, you're better at battling."

Jane nodded slowly in acceptance. Keith knew she understood his reason. Between the two of them, she was stronger, and because she was so quiet, it was sometimes a bit hard for Jane to make herself known, even if she had strong feelings on something. Keith liked that about her – she thought before she spoke – but he knew that she was also a lot more out of her shell and open with him.

At least, he hoped so. He'd be a terrible boyfriend if she wasn't.

The next few minutes were spent on discussing what they were going to do while Max handed a bottle to Serena, as well as a few other items that looked like they belonged in a first aid kit. Maël had the idea to enlist his grandmother's gardevoir, and though she didn't look like she thought it was a good idea, the old woman relented.

And Keith and Jane snuck off into a corner, embracing each other without words before breaking apart. There was fierce determination in Jane's eyes; Keith could tell, but there was also a slight hint of something else. "Let's promise to come back in one piece," she whispered, so the others couldn't hear. "Okay?"

He felt hers was the more dangerous task, but mentioning that was a bad idea, he thought. "Okay."

In response, Jane stood on her toes and gave him a kiss that left Keith quite flustered before she walked off to join the others. She appeared to not have the slightest care in the world about that, while he felt his face turn tomato-coloured.

Thank groudon nobody else mentioned anything.

He, Serena, and Maël placed their hands on gardevoir's arm, and a moment later, they were in a spacious living room. Not quite the police station he was expecting. "Our home," Maël said without looking at either of them. "Grand-mère thought it was a good idea for me to pick up the rest of my Pokémon first. I'll be a minute."

Keith took a look around the room, now noticing that most of the walls were covered in photographs and art; either of some familiar-looking humans and Maël or his grandmother, or of some or another historical thing that looked related to the museum they were just in. Very different from the walls at home: those were pretty much all blank except for the clock and the walls in Keith's room.

He was looking at a picture of a young boy with six Pokémon arrayed behind him when Maël reappeared. "Let's go."

And off they went.

Strangely, Keith thought he heard something spring to life in the house just after they exited the front door, but he soon put it out of his mind. He had a task to accomplish, and failure was not an option.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max had been slightly surprised when Jane had offered to join them, instead of Keith, but any help would do, and he knew that Jane was a good battler. Truth be told, she was way better than Serena, and that would probably be enough to offset the lower familiarity with them.

And honestly, they'd probably be split up soon anyway. Jane could take care of herself a lot better than Serena could. She had been alone on the road for a year after all.

The gardevoir returned, pausing for only the few seconds that the three of them needed to place their hands on its arms, and then the Teleport out blurred the world. It was almost like stepping through a door while standing still; very different from the hurtling that but Max stopped that line of thought immediately.

Somehow, the gardevoir had dropped them off within sight – with the help of a hill – of two Team Flare grunts guarding something. He couldn't quite see what they were guarding, but the wooden beams suggested that it was something going down into the excavation area right there. The mere sight of them caused his mind to mark it as a place they might want to go.

He had seen a few secret entrances in his time, and despite this being somewhat visible, they were also fairly deep onto the private territory that the excavation took place on. Nobody would normally be here. "Knock them out?"

"Can't leave anyone behind to guard," Danny countered softly. "Jane, have anything that inflicts sleep on your team?"

"No. Just paralysis." She sent out dedenne as proof. "Might be able to paralyse them long enough."

Danny blanched, probably thinking about the ethics of running that much electricity through someone's body or something like that, but Max didn't care. There was a time for considering those things, but not now. "Both of us have one too. Paralyse them, get in, and…"

Danny sighed deeply. "It's all we can do," he said, sounding resigned at what they were about to do. "Need to get a bit closer first. Magnemite isn't that accurate long-range."

Several minutes of careful sneaking around later, and three Electric-types pumped two Team Flare grunts full of paralysing electricity. Both of them fell without making too much of a sound.

As one, they slipped in. Max quickly checked his watch as he did so. 13:29. About an hour and a half after everything had started. Hopefully, they weren't too late yet.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Everything had to be perfectly timed. Reveal the plans too soon, and they would have to fight Diantha and Wikstrom for longer than they'd planned to. Jump in too late, and either of them could have seen the announcement, and that would cause that infernal gardevoir to Teleport them away for a crisis meeting.

For everything to work, delays were needed. Malva held no illusions that they could win: Diantha could wipe the floor with as many regular members as she damn well pleased. Wikstrom was weaker, and his defensive style would help: he wouldn't knock the weak Pokémon out as fast as Diantha could. Sadly, that meant she had to fight the Champion herself, and that had never ended in a victory for her yet. Wikstrom she could beat, but not Diantha.

Yet sometimes, the needs of the one were inferior to the needs of the group. Such was the case now.

Her watch beeped softly. Quarter past one; the time that their technicians had earmarked, and the time that she needed to spring into action.

A loud explosion rocked the guardhouse, and that was the sign they had been waiting for. As one, she, and her six underlings, rushed out of the antechamber they'd hidden themselves in. Now was the time for Team Flare to rise. Now was the time for beauty to reclaim this world.

Now was the time for its fated cleansing to commence.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Name:_ _Malva_

 _Age:_ _3_ _4_

 _Type:_ _Fire_

 _Birthplace_ _:_ _Aquacorde Town_

 _Signature Pokémon:_ _talonflame, houndoom_

 _Information:_ _The fiery Malva is the newest member of the Kalos Elite Four, having held her position for three years as of July. Before her ascension to this position, she worked in the private sector, balancing her tasks with perennial appearances at many high-level tournaments. She has won the Lumiose Conference three times, and she has finished in the top four twice more, using her Fire-type Pokémon's blazing offences to disable and debilitate any opponent who fought her. Like the type she uses, she shows no mercy to the unprepared, and cautions litter her official record, but her skill at battling cannot be denied._

From: Poképedia's Kalos Elite Four Profiles

* * *

 **Author's Note:** All the references, both to earlier in this fic and canon. I'm not entirely sure Clemont had a bouncy castle stowed away in his backpack at some point, but it's within character if nothing else.


	28. Indiscriminate Death

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

 **Author's Note:** Probably stretching the T-rating a bit in some sections on account of graphical stuff.

* * *

 **Chapter 28: Indiscriminate Death**

The tunnel interior was a lot different from what Max was expecting. Back in Hoenn, the walls had been rock and the lighting had been obviously improvised. Earlier in Lumiose, it had been more like a laboratory in how clinical it felt. The panels helped; Max remembered that both Professor Birch and Oak had similar things on their walls and floors.

If anything, it was very vaguely like the tunnels that Ash had gotten possessed in. There weren't any hieroglyphics on the walls, but the same sandy walls were present here, and the stones didn't feel new either when Max's fingers ghosted across the surface for a few seconds. Torches lined the walls every so often, burning at low intensity and making the tunnel stuffy. "This is old. Like, really old," he told the others in a whisper. "It's..."

And then he peeked around a corner, spotting nobody but also seeing the wall turn to the panels they had seen before, and he saw the path split up ahead. Curiously, there was no normal light there, though the torches gave way to braziers. "It's entirely too empty here," Danny opined, and manectric barked in agreement. "Not that it's a bad thing."

Max couldn't agree more, but after another five minutes of moving slowly along a mostly linear path – there had been doors off to the side, but they had looked like storage or toilets – even he was beginning to feel a bit uneasy about it. Was there some kind of trap that was about to be sprung? They had crossed over into regularly lit hallways, though the lighting wasn't all that bright.

A door caught his eye, of a different make than any of the doors they'd seen before. It was ajar just a tiny bit, making the automatic lock that he spotted useless. A soft whirring was audible close to the door, and it became ever so slightly louder when Max pushed the door open further. All six of them filed in, and Jane closed the door behind them, but Max only half paid attention to that.

In front of them was a generator. Not the largest he'd ever seen, but certainly up there. It looked like it produced enough power to sustain a medium-size Pokémon Center at nearly full capacity. Whatever it ran on, Max didn't know: he could see no waste or fuel or anything nearby. "Y'think this powers the complex?" Danny asked softly.

"Probably," Jane agreed, equally softly. "They can't have too much power. It..."

She was interrupted by crackling static, and an unknown voice caused all of them to jump. Max located the source first: a higher-end Holo Caster model, complete with small video display, lying on a desk next to a set of keys. "This is a rebroadcast of Team Flare's announcement for Kalos," the male announcer told them in a clear and crisp tone.

Another short burst of static. "To my beloved Kalos region," an aristocratic voice started. "I am here with an announcement for you all." The screen, which had been showing a red banner, shifted to a map of Kalos. "For generations, it has been said that humans and Pokémon live in harmony in this world. That we work together to create a bright future; one in which nothing is impossible if it can be imagined. We teach our children this."

The display shifted to stills of children and Pokémon playing together, four of them before the voice resumed. "What we forget to teach our children is that progress comes at a price, and that price is our very world and moral fibre. Corruption runs rampant, and people are _content_ to let this happen," the man spat as the screen showed a man shoving a briefcase with cash across a table. "We build and we build, without regard for Pokémon habitats or natural beauty. For thirty-five years, I have beheld this world, seen its beauty, and despaired at its treatment. But no more."

A shiver ran down Max's spine, and he glanced a quick look at the other two. Both of them seemed to be listening, and he couldn't really tell if they were similarly unnerved. "Over the past year, you have come to know Team Flare. We have not tried to effect change peacefully, because a cursory study of history will tell everyone that peaceful change is nothing but a temporary measure, designed to placate you all. In the process, we have hurt people, and some have indeed lost their lives. We deeply regret the loss of life, despite that those who have lost their lives were in essence enemy combatants."

That lie, spoken so glibly, incensed Max. One of the deaths – just two weeks before, in an attack in the mountainous south of Kalos – had been a bystander covered in rocks from a Pokémon battle between Team Flare and the police on a plateau up above. The fact that this man was using the deaths as… as an excuse…

"… Flare is taking control of Kalos," the voice continued to drone on, Max having missed about half a sentence in his anger. "We urge you not to resist. What we are doing is for the best. The establishment does not agree, naturally, and as such, we have sent our forces to six Gyms in order to subdue them. If you live in central Lumiose, Cyllage, Shalour, Laverre, Pyrocorde, or Anistar, please stay inside. This is for your own safety.

"Our region, and indeed the world, is changing, moving into a new era of shared prosperity. There is a beautiful future just around the corner, and we of Team Flare will bring about that vision. We will return this world to its natural order; where true harmony between humanity and Pokémon can be achieved instead of the facsimile that is current. We will restore this world's beauty, for while humanity is fleeting, beauty is eternal.

"In several hours, we will inform you of how this new world will work. For now, stay inside, be safe, and remember that beauty is above all."

The broadcast ended with a few notes that Max recognised from a Kalos national song; not the anthem, but one that was still held up as Kalosian as anything. The notes didn't last long as Danny, who had been closest, turned the sound on the Holo Caster down. "That voice was so familiar..." Danny told them. "But I can't remember where I've heard it."

"I feel the same. Definitely someone I've heard before," Jane agreed, before poking Max in the arm. "Are you okay?"

"No," Max admitted, taking a moment to breathe in deeply, before letting it out slowly. "What wasn't he saying? I mean," he added, seeing both of the others look at him weirdly, "we saw the map. There's got to be something that he isn't saying. Something that'll allow him to take Kalos over better. Team Flare's just too small for that."

"Small?" Danny echoed. "You're going too fast for me again, Max."

"Clemont said there were ten of them in Prism Tower, and three in the base. If the other Gyms had the same numbers, that's only like seventy people, plus whoever is here. That's not enough to take over a country. Maybe a town, but not a country."

"Team Aqua and Magma had barely 60 members each," Jane reminded him. "And they still summoned groudon and ky… Max?"

He had frozen, as unbidden, words James had spoken came to mind, as clear as if he had heard them minutes before instead of months before. " _My higher-ups are seeing parallels between Flare and the Hoenn situation,"_ the Rocket member had said at that strange luncheon. What if… What if the parallels went further than just the raids?

"We have to stop them. We..."

The door rattled, and cursing came from the other side. As one, three faces shot to the door, though they heard a man stomp off, still cursing under his breath.

Wordlessly, Danny pointed at the far left of the generator, where they could squeeze through a small space. They came out behind the machine; the space neither roomy nor comfortable, but it was out of sight, and nobody would look there. "That's probably the engineer. His keys were on the desk, so you closing the door locked him out," Danny reasoned once they were all there, looking at Jane, who nodded. "He's probably going to find someone with a spare key, and then we're..."

"Shit out of luck," Max finished, looking around to see if there was anything on this side that they could use to get out. Even an air vent would do. "We'll have to jump him before he finds us and we need to stop him from alerting others. But how can we do that..."

Neither responded verbally, but Jane tugged on his shirt, pointing down. There was a small opening in the base of the generator there, and when Max bent to look at it the best he could, he remembered that he saw something similar at the other end. "Dedenne can wait in there, then Nuzzle-paralyse him."

That was a start. "And after?"

"Was hoping you had ideas for that."

They hadn't, yet, but they were able to put a very simple plan together in the time it took for the man to return, which was about five minutes. A second man temporarily came in with him, but he soon left, and when that happened, Max held up three fingers.

Three minutes until they executed their plan.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Serena, Keith, and Maël were sitting in a police… The policewoman at the desk had called it a waiting chamber, but there was something about it that screamed interrogation room to Serena's feelings. While it wasn't a real one like you saw in TV series, there was nothing that really set it apart as a waiting room either: no magazines, no posters on the walls, no nothing.

They'd been in the police station for about half an hour, and they were currently waiting for a higher-up to come to them. The regular officer who'd taken their initial statement – an acquaintance of Maël's, if Serena's guess was right – had believed them, and she had told them to wait here so they could try and convince someone who actually had some clout in the department.

The door opened, and in walked an Officer Jenny, wearing a face like thunder. Two other police officers followed her in, one carrying a… a portable radio? "You say you have information about Team Flare," the Jenny demanded, drawing their attention. "That they're going to do something to Geosenge. Normally, I wouldn't believe you, but in light of recent events…

A nod to one of her colleagues and the radio's volume was turned up. "…ving into a new era of shared prosperity. There is a beautiful future just around the corner, and we of Team Flare will bring about that vision. We will return this world to its natural order; where true harmony between humanity and Pokémon can be achieved instead of the facsimile that is current. We will restore this world's beauty, for while humanity is fleeting, beauty is eternal," came a voice that Serena felt she should know. It was familiar, somewhere.

"That message has been broadcasting on all Holo Casters, all televisions, and all radio stations for the past twenty minutes," the blue-haired policewoman revealed. "There's more to it, but none of it mentions Geosenge. It..."

"Does it mention Lumiose, Anistar, Laverre, Pyrocorde, Cyllage, and Shalour?" Serena interrupted, biting down on her instinct to shut up when the Jenny gave her an angry look.

"Ma'am, they've been inside here since before the message started," the one who'd taken their original statement said. "There's no way..."

"Yes, I see your point, Burton. A summary, please," she ordered Serena.

Serena duly gave it, Keith chiming in as well. He was good at remembering details, and he felt a lot more comfortable talking to the police, she thought. "What are you going to do?" she asked at the end of her explanation.

"Technically," the Jenny said, a hand rubbing her temple, "you did commit a couple of crimes earlier. Breaking and entering, destruction of property…" Serena's face went red as she realised that. "Relax. If it helps put Team Flare down, you could go out and knock all of them unconscious. I don't care about criminals. I care about keeping Geosenge and Kalos safe. Burton!" she snapped. "Type a quick note for the city council, then use the radio override transmitter to send out an emergency signal. We're evacuating Geosenge."

"Evacuating?" Maël blurted out as Burton left. "But… There's tens of thousands of people here."

"I know. But the situation, despite only hearsay and circumstantial evidence, is too hot not to. If Team Flare is really doing something, I'd bet my life those earthquakes weren't natural. And if Team Flare is doing something that can create magnitude 4.7 earthquakes, I want people _out._ "

"And what about us?" Keith wondered. "Should we just leave now? Our friends are..."

"Yes, I know," the Jenny interrupted them, and this time, both hands went to her temples. None of them spoke as she thought. "Answer me this honestly. If I ordered you to leave, would you sneak behind my back to try and help anyway?"

The deafening silence as Serena and Keith looked at each other nervously said everything. "Think that's a yes, ma'am," Maël supplied helpfully.

"I'd noticed. Miss Galbena," the Jenny addressed Serena. "I fear all of my men and women will soon be busy with the evacuation. Will you take the note to the city hall, and explain what is happening to the council?"

Serena nodded, grateful that she wasn't being sent away. She also saw Maël nod, and she suspected Keith had done the same. "You can count on me!"

"Good. Now, let's get going. Team Flare must be stopped."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Disabling the engineer had been a piece of cake, with Jane's plan working absolutely perfectly. With the man unable to do much, his Pokémon in stasis and out of easy reach, and his keys taken, the three of them carefully snuck out, back into the panelled hallway. They'd come from the right before, and so they went left, a few Pokémon trailing behind them. Froslass and honedge followed them, while xatu slowly flew overhead, staying airborne with the help of his powers.

They managed to get three hallways down before someone saw them. He called them out, but by the time he was ready to send a Pokémon out, several things had already happened.

One: xatu had short-range Teleported the three of them and honedge past the man.

Two: froslass had used a powerful Icy Wind. The attack hit, and a pokéball fell to the ground without being opened as the man yelped in sudden pain from frost.

Three: honedge had slipped back from where they had Teleported, and he had pressed his pommel into the man's neck, quickly draining vitality from the grunt. Simultaneously, froslass had floated up while charging a Confuse Ray, which was unleashed only by the time there was absolutely no risk of missing.

It was _dirty_ as anything, and the mere thought of it had left Danny with an uneasy feeling when they had discussed the plan back in the generator room, but just as the paralysis sneak attacks – two now – that had happened, he knew that there was a time and place for ethics. Just as the year before, when they'd been with Ash outside some secret base, he just had to get over it. With whatever plan the mysterious aristocrat was plotting, there was no time to be gentle, or even vaguely honourable. They had to take every single advantage they could get their hands on, and delay, delay, delay, and hope someone else could help them.

Max hadn't said it outright, but Danny knew. There were stronger Trainers than them here. The fat Scientist that had been in Durocor had been able to escape with ease, and from reports, Danny knew there were more of them. He didn't know how many – he knew of three others who had appeared at some point in the past months – but if the title was an indication of strength, and if they were here, the teenagers would be in a lot of trouble.

There was also something on Max's mind. Danny wasn't certain what, but there had been a moment inside the engineer's office where he had started to warn them, only to be interrupted. Perhaps Max had forgotten in the need to figure out how to not get cornered, but the look on his face had been one of dawning horror.

Danny would bet money Max knew what was up ahead, or at least suspected it, and frankly, he was afraid to ask what exactly it was. He wasn't as brave as Max was, and relative ignorance was still a tiny bit of bliss. Or however that saying went.

While he had been thinking about that, the same trick had been executed again. Teleporting such a short distance wasn't even noticeable in his body, and only the rapid shifting of perspective really gave it away. Their hastily put together plan was working better than they could have hoped for.

He was the first to notice the camera hidden away in the shadow of a corner, but before he could even tap Max's shoulder, a sharp pop and crackle snapped through the hallway, followed by a loud wailing sound – an alarm, followed by a message about intruders being found in some or another hallway. Them.

Danny didn't need to see Max's face, nor hear him audibly in the din, to know what had been said. He happened to agree fully, and their hasty walk turned into a full-blown run. As the fastest of them, Danny went first, using the wall to turn the first corner effectively and immediately seeing a wide open space about fifty feet ahead of them.

It turned out to be some kind of hall, easily two hundred feet long and wide, with an exit directly at the other end. He saw a podium to the left, as well as a handful of Team Flare trainers. In one fluid motion, he sent out swampert, while froslass overtook them to launch an Ice Beam at the grunts. Jane and Max also sent out Pokémon, and when Danny turned his head right, he saw more trainers there, easily outnumbering them four to one, while Pokémon were starting to be sent out.

There was no decision to be made, and as Max put his hand on his belt, intending to send out either sceptile or manectric, Danny grabbed him by the wrist, even as his other hand tapped on dusclops's pokéball. "Don't. We'll hold them off. You take xatu and head on. No!" he added, seeing Max about to protest. "You're the strongest. If you want to stop them, you have to go on."

The boys made eye contact for a fleeting second, but in that single moment, Danny saw over a dozen different things run through Max's mind. Fear, resignation, understanding, trust, conviction. There was no need to say anything; no comment to stay safe, no doubting Danny's idea. They understood each other, and what had to be done. Sometimes, the only way to show the bonds of friendship was to separate in times of need.

He released Max's wrist, and the same hand grabbed the third pokéball on that side, moving honedge back before he cried for xatu. Danny stepped back, even as he heard a Protect and saw a flame and electricity block attacks behind Max.

And then Max vanished, reappearing at the other side of the battle, the other side of the room, and Danny followed it up by throwing aggron into the middle of the hall. "Swampert, to him! Jane, send everything out! Stall them and fight like your life depends on it!"

It well might.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Lysandre listened dispassionately to the dispatch from one of his agents in Geosenge. Somehow, the authorities had gotten wind of whatever was being planned, and the police had taken to the emergency broadcasting system to tell all inhabitants of Geosenge to leave town. The actions were unsurprising, but the timing was ahead of every estimate, leading him to suspect that more was at hand. Yveltal was being awakened in his view – or it would be once this call ended – but apart from the pair of minor earthquakes – locally neutralised by various Pokémon – there had been nothing to tip them off just yet.

"You have your orders. Execute them ahead of schedule," he ordered coldly before abruptly closing the connection. Mere seconds later, another incoming call stopped him before he could even turn to the great work being done. "Yes?"

Behind the speaker, Lysandre could hear Pokémon attacks; a curiosity inside his own base, even more so considering where Aliana was actually located; in the Atrium one floor up, where security had been set up. Even more curious was her description of the Trainers who had apparently found and breached the base through means unknown. Two boys, one girl, all teenagers was a description he remembered vividly, thanks to their continued status as a thorn in his Team's side.

It was curious how, of the few times that they had been thwarted in their goals, those same teenagers featured in two. Once in an attempt to take away the garchompite from one of Kalos's more powerful Trainers – who was probably on his way to help break the attack on Prism Tower – and once while raiding the Durocor Musée Central. That had been curious indeed; and finding out how _they_ had found out had only led to more questions. Team Rocket expanding to Kalos was interesting enough, but how the information had gotten from Team Rocket to those teenagers had stymied every last one of his agents to this day. Theories abounded, naturally, but none with any measure of conclusive evidence.

And one of them was actually coming towards him. How intriguing. "Focus on those with you and disable them at any cost. I will take care of the boy." He closed the call and turned away from both his desk and the one way window looking out over the cocoon.

As he turned off the lights in his office, the ring on his left middle finger caught his eye, glinting, the light trapped inside the stone fading slower than the lamp. It reminded him of something, but the thought went as soon as another vindictive thought appeared.

Perhaps it was too much, a treatment better used for more wholesome company, but tenacity was to be rewarded. Yes, he mused as he closed the door behind him, locking it and telling the guard to remain alert. Whoever this naive boy was, and should he make it down to the Chamber of Awakening, he would feel the wrath of Team Flare's convictions before too long.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Geosenge's city hall wasn't too far from the police station; maybe half a mile, with the building clearly visible for most of that, thanks to open streets and a town square. The streets were fairly quiet at first, but when the police started broadcasting the evacuation message on the emergency broadcasting system, Serena saw people open doors and windows to look outside, wondering what was going on. Maël was stopped several times, people seeming to recognise him and wondering what was going on, and every time, he told them to do what the police was saying they should do: evacuate, get out, leave everything non-essential behind.

She saw them before either of the others did, thanks to sheer luck. About three quarters through the town square, Serena glanced left, and she saw four Team Flare members come from a nearby café, a couple of Pokémon by their side. "Team Flare!" she yelled, bringing out all of her Pokémon. Braixen immediately diverted a bout of flame from a houndoom up into the air, where it set something on fire, while cherrim used the sunlight to transform into its alternate Forme. "Need help!"

"We need to get the note to the council," Maël said as he sent out two Pokémon of his own: a stately male unfezant and a tangela.

"Then go deliver it!" Keith yelled over his skarmory letting out a Metal Sound to disrupt two Pokémon trying to run at them. "We'll hold this."

"Two on four?! You're crazy!"

Keith's reply of "Blame Max and Danny!" made Serena giggle despite everything. "Just go. Silver Wind and Fairy Wind!"

"Copycat!" Serena quickly ordered zorua to lift along on one of the attacks, her Dark-type going with the Silver Wind and using it to block a set of Swift stars from a flareon. "Magical Leaf them!"

Flareon tried to incinerate the leaves, but that was one trick Serena had trained for. If anything, the projectiles were even more dangerous to the target now; a mightyena yelping loudly at being pelted with embers and leaves. It was distracted long enough for Keith's skarmory to fly by with a Wing Attack, though the Steel-type had to pull out immediately when both Fire-types decided to try and melt him.

She looked back at her three other Pokémon. Braixen was busy trying not to get hit by an electabuzz, who was launching Thunderpunch after Thunderpunch without letting up. Zorua was nearby, looking like she'd copped one of those punches, and Serena quickly did a return and release before unscrewing the top of the bottle Max had given her. "Drink this," she said as she saw swablu dive at a toxicroak that was trying to poison Keith's floette. "Swablu, Disarming Voice!"

A deafening thud announced onix, but the grinding didn't follow, and Serena looked left to see the Rock-type coil around the two of them. The tail did lash out, punting the houndoom straight at the fountain. The canine managed to avoid being drenched fully, but beautifly was there immediately, showering it in purple powder. "Onix guards us?" she asked her companion?

"Yeah," Keith replied. "Beautifly, up high, then solarbeam!"

"You too, cherrim!"

Flareon's Flamethrower blocked beautifly's shot, but cherrim landed a full hit on the mightyena, and Serena saw that one of the Team Flare trainers had to physically dodge out of the way of flying canine.

For a moment, she wondered if hoping for the Dark-type to hit its trainer made her a bad person. Then, zorua gave a sharp yip and returned to the fight, using Copycat to double a spray of Embers braixen was using to keep the electabuzz at bay and burning its knees.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The short brown-grey-haired woman regarded the group trussed up on the quadrangle with a mix of curiosity and pity; emotions he very much did not share. The traitor had tried to delay Diantha from intervening with whatever it was they were doing, with the help of some generic grunts that had been good only to be swept away in a three-way attack between Moonblast, Earth Power, and Thunder. Then, they had turned on Malva as one, and while she put up a surprisingly tenacious fight, she had not lasted too long. "We need to find out where they're attacking," he said.

"I am aware," Diantha replied, finishing her examination of her former colleague. "I was preoccupied with wondering who her superior is, though I think I have it figured out." A sharp gesture summoned her gardevoir, the Mega Stone in its pendant. "Gardevoir, you know what to do."

He had been expecting Hypnosis into forcing Malva to tell them. Gardevoir glowing blue and touching the redhead while Diantha had a hand on the Pokémon's shoulder was not that. He knew what it was, but to the best of his understanding, it could only be used with willing participation.

Judging by the way the traitor slumped in a boneless faint, that was probably for a reason. "Geosenge," Diantha told him. "I don't think..."

"No," he confirmed. "Coumarine, Anistar, Lumiose, a few on the road. Not there. What are our options?"

"I have family fifteen miles south."

He thought it over. Fifteen miles was enough to not be immediately embroiled in a battle, and it would give them time to identify the exact location that they were needed. "That works. We can leave these in your capable hands, Wikstrom?"

The older man – not wearing the armour that was his trademark, but still clad in something leather that wouldn't be amiss at a historical fair – saluted. "Aye. These miscreants will not escape."

Next stop, Geosenge. Hopefully, in time.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The grunt and Max saw each other at the same time, both of them starting in surprise at seeing one another. Max hadn't heard the man, but he was faster on reacting, immediately jumping forward to wrestle the adult to the ground in an attempt to keep him from sending Pokémon out.

He realised that was a bad idea after the man easily threw him off, his shoulder banging into the wall, but then xatu joined in, outlining the man in blue that sent the man cross-eyed immediately, hands going to his ears to drown out the cacophony of Confusion that the Psychic-type was unleashing. It wouldn't work, Max knew, and when honedge joined in to drain the man's energy, he felt safe enough to get up, rolling his shoulder once. Nothing too painful – probably just the impact.

The movement did make him spot a door, which was curious. There hadn't been any since he had left Danny and Jane to fight, now a floor above since he'd just gone down a set of stairs, and the fact that there was a grunt here… Was he guarding the door?

Thanking Danny for having the foresight to mention that keys might be useful, Max tried the lock. The third key was the right one, and the door opened effortlessly, revealing a darkened room. Rapid patting of the nearby wall turned the lights on, revealing it to be an office, and one of someone obviously important. It wasn't the wall that really told Max that: there was only one thing on the panelled walls; a painting of a pyroar at what looked to be eye level for Max, but the desk was intricate, oaken with expensive-looking filigree. Silver, maybe. The rug underneath was another hint.

Xatu dragged the confused and drained man in, unceremoniously dropping him on the rug, and Max quickly locked the door behind his Pokémon. It locked him in, but he would have warning if someone came back, which was good. He lifted the last remaining bottle of extract – an unopened one, because Serena had the one that had been opened after their Teleport – from his bag, and tossed it in the general direction of his Pokémon. "Take a sip, each of you."

Thank jirachi he'd put straws in the bottles back in Lumiose. At least unscrewing the top was easy for xatu.

The huge wall-window was the obvious thing to look at, but he decided to skip it for now, instead looking at the desk first. Anything that could help him identify who the mysterious aristocrat was, what Pokémon he had, confirmation if his guess was correct. He knew there wasn't a lot of time, but he hoped the detour could be worth it.

After all, he remembered Olympia saying that key information lurked just out of sight. This office definitely counted.

The safe behind the painting made Max groan. Literally. It made sense, what with the panels being easy to repurpose into a safe, but that trick was so old it had been a cliché when Max's grandparents were his age. At least it was some kind of modern safe, with fingerprint technology for unlocking. There was no way Max was getting to those contents; not without somehow getting a rotom like Clemont… had…

Okay, that was worth a try. "Honedge? Can you get into this?"

Honedge flew over, a droplet of clear extract near his mouth. The liquid fell to the ground as the Ghost turned intangible, passing into the wall underneath.

Ten seconds later, there was a pair of rapid taps from _inside_ the safe. This was followed by a more powerful thump, as honedge tried his luck against the door.

Something must have sounded good to him, because the thumps continued, prompting Max to take a few steps back and to the side just in case. The fact that he saw the door rattle helped with his decision, and after a minute of increasingly clear movement, the door finally flew out, crashing against the desk. Honedge flew out after, halting himself before he could join the door, and he let out a happy cry. "That was great! Go take a few more sips. That can't have been simple."

With honedge taking care of himself, Max looked at the safe, standing on his toes to make sure he could see into it.

What he saw inside made him drop back down in surprise, even as he brought a hand up to swipe at the object. He brought the small cushion along, the small sphere falling off as gravity started doing its work, but his other hand was quick enough to catch the Key Stone. It wasn't set in or attached to anything, but it was unmistakably one.

Max had no qualms about taking it. He wasn't going to try and evoke the Mega Evolution – not after how it had failed last time. He needed all his energy for what was coming up. But just leaving it there wasn't a good idea either. If nothing else, him taking this meant Team Flare didn't have it any longer, which could be useful.

The man groaning on the rug drove the point home. Max didn't want to take chances at him somehow having a Mega Stone that he could not use because Max had left a Key Stone just lying around. Quickly relieving this man of his keys as well, and ordering xatu to bend them into useless metal, he took a moment to glance out the window.

He immediately wished he hadn't.

The first thing he spotted was a black… thing. It was vaguely oval-shaped, deep-black, maybe two and a half times his height. Pulses of energy fed into it, emanating ominous red with every surge. Every such surge sent a wave of revulsion through Max; turning his stomach, making him want to run, hide, get as far away from the thing as was physically possible, as soon as he could.

He tore himself away from the window, lessening the strange aura. He shook his head, and when he reopened his eyes, he saw goosebumps on his arm, and cold remained in his stomach, and he knew which Pokémon was in there, in that cocoon. He knew the Dark when he saw it, and that was it.

As the door locked behind Max, the boy now alone in the corridor after returning his Pokémon, he cast his mind back to two events. One was three and a half years back, one was closer to two and a half years. In the first, he had found jirachi, and how Max wished that the Wishmaker could be here now. Not to fight directly – jirachi was young and not very good – but to wish allies here. People who were prepared to deal with this stuff. Not Max, or Danny, or Jane, or Serena, or Keith. The best of the best, like Ash or Lance or any Champion. Maybe all of them.

In the second, he had sort of died? He'd had a very morbid discussion with Brock about how immune systems worked after the whole Tree of Beginning thing, and maybe it was too morbid now too.

But it was scarily appropriate when you were hoping to stop someone from awakening the Legendary of Death.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Team Flare was not giving up. Two more had joined the fight against them, and more Pokémon were fighting now. Off to the side, swablu, sableye and staryu were trying to keep a hitmonchan away, while Maël's tangela had taken over duties for cherrim, who had been knocked out after the sun had faded and the flareon had landed a Fire Blast.

Around the square, everything was starting to look charred and worn. There were a lot of Fire-types in Team Flare's arsenal. A magcargo had melted some of the stone in the thirty seconds it had been out; staryu, zorua, and Maël's wartortle working together to get rid of it before it could make its mark on the battle. A talonflame had ruined both beautifly and skarmory before falling to unfezant, and even now, braixen was busy fighting a pignite. The flareon had only been knocked out just a minute before, but not before setting a building on the far end of the square on fire.

The fact that it was fire knocking all the Pokémon out was bad. The Full Restore elixir didn't help against that. At the same time, without it, they would have lost already, Serena was sure of it. They'd been close to being overrun before Maël's initial three Pokémon had rejoined the fight, with a kirlia soon joining as a fourth. "They won't stop bloody coming!" Keith exclaimed as he snatched the bottle from Serena's hand, barely meeting resistance. "Staryu, left, then back here!"

"Watch out!" Maël yelled, and they all ducked. A Hyper Beam flew over their head, blasting into the city hall behind them and setting off at least one alarm. Debris clattered down the stairs. "At least it's not a salamence. You okay?"

Serena nodded, eyeing the shelgon carefully. It was recharging now, being covered by two other Pokémon, but it'd soon do that again. "Anything we have to deal with that apart from swablu and kirlia?" The lack of response was answer enough. "Great. I don't suppose kirlia can Teleport us away?"

"If she could, why would we have walked here?" Maël returned tangela, sending it back out immediately and taking the bottle from Keith with one hand. With the other, he sent out his fifth Pokémon: a graceful white bird Serena didn't immediately recognise. "Swanna, Hurricane!"

Serena hastily returned swablu from the Hurricane's path, and Keith did the same for sableye, barely getting his second Pokémon out of a Fire Punch by the hitmonchan as well. The gale force winds slammed into the Fighting-type, lifting it clean off the ground and pushing it far away from all of them. Serena saw it crash into a house on the far end, but then a cry from braixen caught her attention, and she turned around to see her starter being pummelled by the pignite. Zorua tried to jump onto the part-Fighting type, but he only got flung off in return, landing hard and awkwardly, the cry of pain tearing at Serena's soul.

She returned and released him, even as kirlia flung the pignite off, but immediately saw that there was no coming back from this. The paw was broken, and Serena returned her Tricky Fox Pokémon without delay. "How's the bottle?"

Maël, who still had it, shook it. "Mostly empty. Hurricane again! They don't look like they have much more, though. It… Watch out!"

Serena turned. She saw orange explode a few feet away from her, and she felt herself being lifted up, weightlessness flinging her back. She tried to brace and—

 **~~§~~§~~**

They just didn't stop coming! All of Danny's Pokémon were out – the ones still conscious – and all of Jane's were too, but so were a lot of Team Flare Pokémon. The atrium hall room thing – whatever it was, Danny didn't know – was _thrashed_. Lamps overhead dangled by electrical wires, glass shards, wooden splinters, remnants of chairs and tables all littered the floor; and at least five Pokémon had been slammed into the wall. It was chaos. "Blizzard, Icy Wind, Fairy Wind!"

They'd been able to stop the grunts from following Max, aggron daring any Trainer and Pokémon to do that. He'd been the first to fall as a result, but by the time he did, the Scientist commanding the grunts had come out to fight them, and as far as Danny could tell, none of the grunts had actually gone to follow Max. Good. That was what they were here for; to give Max a chance at actually stopping what was going on here.

He ducked under a Shadow Ball, feeling the wall explode behind him, not for the first time. The attacks were coming closer to them, and Jane had already nearly been slammed by a fletchinder. It had caused Danny to pick up the leg of a chair; the wood solid enough to threaten most of the flying Pokémon that could easily reach them. There was the one noivern that was probably too heavy to bat away, but that was the Pokémon Danny had been targeting for the last minute or so.

Jane wasn't doing as well as he was, though, he saw from the corner of his eye, and a quick command told klefki to go help her combusken, who was one of her two Pokémon left. Dedenne was the other. Pelipper and swellow had fallen to some or another Electric-type – galvantula or some weird Alolan half-Bug. Quilladin had been fighting alongside swampert, and the Grass-type was currently propped up against the wall, recovering with a drink of extract, while sneasel had been burned.

A machoke rushed towards them, and swampert moved to intercept, heavy punches and kicks immediately being launched, and the ground shook as one of swampert's chops went into the flooring, a Protect stopping machoke from delivering one of his own to the starter's unprotected back. Froslass tried to interfere with an Ice Beam, but was forced to redirect it into a scrafty that was trying to do the same thing, and the two Pokémon started their own little fight.

He noticed dusclops flagging, mostly by posture. "Jane, bottle!" he called, turning towards her. She threw it immediately, Danny catching it with one hand.

But as he did, he saw a white blur slam klefki aside. "Watch out!"

And Jane froze.

A mortifying, horrifying, soul-rending scream of agony.

The zangoose was blasted off with extreme prejudice by quilladin, dusclops, and dedenne, but it was too late for Jane. She was on the ground, shrieking in pain, blood pooling under her leg.

Danny was near her in an instant, noticing – luckily – that most of the blood was actually just seeping out instead of spurting out. The amount of blood was due to the size of the wound, and not because the Pokémon had hit an artery. That was something, but he still had to swallow to stop himself from being sick.

Jane's calf was a bloody mess. Strips of skin hung on the side of where zangoose's claw swipe had landed, and he was certain he could see muscles – probably whole? He didn't know – and none of that was supposed to be that way. She was shaking and shifting on the ground in pain. "Jane? Can you hear me?" Danny asked. She turned her head to him, and tried to move. "No. Don't." Ice shattered in the background, but froslass didn't cry out in pain. He took his shirt off, adjusting his knees so he could lift Jane's foot.

Then he left the ground, flying backwards as several Pokémon attacks shot towards a point twenty feet away. The lunatone lost its hold on him, but he kept moving. 'This is going...'

A searing spike went through his elbow.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max recognised the large room the instant it came into view. Even now that he was looking at it from the ground level instead from up on high, it was amazingly recognisable by virtue of its size, though he didn't think he remembered the ceiling being open; grey skies overhead providing a little natural light to mix with the dark-red lamps lining the cavern wall. At the far end, maybe a hundred yards away, Max saw the very thing that had filled – still filled – him with dread. A big piece of rock that served as the sleeping place for yveltal.

Halfway between the cocoon and himself, however, there was someone else. A man, with almost ludicrously expansive red hair. His back was turned to Max, though the pyroar by his side alerted him the instant Max stepped across an invisible threshold. "So you have come. A boy; carried by conviction and providence, seeks to challenge the fate of this world. Were it not futile, I would have thought it touching, in a naive and foolish way. You are destined to lose, _child_." The man turned around, and even at the distance, the face was just familiar enough to make Max gasp. "But tell me. How did you find this base so soon?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Max shot back angrily, honedge and manectric appearing. "I'm going to stop you!"

Lysandre's laugh was deep and full; yet cold somehow. "You are delusional, Max Maple. My Pokémon are far beyond yours, as is my mind and my knowledge. Perhaps you could beat me if you were double your current age, but now? I stand by what I said before: you are destined to lose." He smirked. "Allow me to demonstrate."

Pyroar launched a Hyper Voice in the literal blink of an eye, and both of Max's Pokémon were only barely able to block it. Honedge took the brunt of it, the attack sending him spinning off, while the remnant that hit manectric was still powerful enough to send the canine skidding back into Max's legs, forcing him to do a weird leap that ended with him kneeling next to his Electric-type after a hard landing.

Amazingly, honedge wasn't knocked out, Max saw when he looked left for a split-second, keeping half an eye on Lysandre. The Ghost got up, looking pretty tired, but full of fight left, if the angry cry he let out was any indication.

And then he started evolving, and Lysandre's cry for pyroar to stop him was too late. The second Hyper Voice was nullified by the evolution energy, and then doublade appeared, looking for all the world like it was two honedge stuck together, like magnemite and magneton. The only real sign it wasn't was the cloth: it had been blue, but the two coming from the hilts were more pink or purple. "Such conviction in you and your Pokémon," Lysandre said, sounding almost… approving? "Futile in the end, but so rare to see in one your age." He took several steps forward, metallic reflections across his body. "I can sense your potential from here. You have the spark of greatness; the unwavering trust of your Pokémon; the unyielding resolve needed to rise to the top. You could have been one of the greatest Pokémon Trainers of this era." The soft smile turned nasty. "Except you interfered. That cannot be countenanced."

Manectric let out a sharp bark, and Max felt static electricity surge under the hand he had in her neck; painful, but familiar and soothing. There was nothing to be said, and everything to be done. The aristocrat; the genocidal maniac; had to be stopped. Maybe he couldn't, but Max was damn well going to try. He'd made his choice a long time ago, long before he'd even heard of Team Flare, even before he'd actually had Pokémon of his own. He would fight; no matter if the fight was on the streets or in the shadow of a sleeping Legendary. He would fight; no matter the odds. He would fight; no matter what it could mean for him. He would fight to protect his friends, stuck above, in Geosenge, in Lumiose, all over the world, and he would fight to protect the Kalos region, if not the entire world.

Sudden heat burned against his chest, and in his pocket, and pink-red flared around him.

And an ominous red aura burst forth from behind Lysandre.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Pokédex entry: yveltal._

 _Characteristics: avian, draconian, Dark-type. Est. height 20 ft; wingspan 23 ft. Weight unknown._

 _Detailed information: Little is known about this Legendary. Kalos is its home, but its last confirmed awakening was over a millennium and a half ago. Its most famous awakening was three millennia ago, in the fight that opened the Shalour Bay. Archaeological findings confirm it has an attack that can drain life from whoever its hits, revitalising yveltal. This has been known to kill humans and weak Pokémon. Its strength is estimated to be on par with other one of a kind Legendaries. Xerneas and zygarde are its antitheses._

 _See also: xerneas, zygarde, groudon, kyogre, dialga, palkia._

* * *

 **Author's Note (2):** Lots of perspective-switching. Hopefully it's easy enough to keep track of whose point of view it is for most of the scenes.


	29. Uncaring Life

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 29: Uncaring Life**

Geosenge was becoming visible in the distance; and it was obvious the town was aware of what was going on. Hundreds of feet below the two flying Pokémon, people were leaving the town in droves, walking or riding on Pokémonback, while smoke wafted up from multiple locations in town. It…

The Dragon-type Master's musings were interrupted by an enormous pillar of red beyond the town. It went up into the grey clouds; and even just looking at it gave him the idea that it was an unnatural thing. Something had happened there, and without hesitation, both Pokémon adjusted their course to go to the new beacon. The town may have been in danger, but they would have to take care of themselves for now.

Lance would bet anything that Team Flare was responsible for whatever had happened there.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The red aura obscured Max's vision, but the feeling of dread that tore through the room was palpable, mingling with the prickling under his skin. The unearthly screech that erupted moments later, loud enough to leave a slight ring in his ears, froze his insides. Even though he had never heard it before, and even though he could barely see five feet in front of him, he knew what it meant.

Yveltal had awakened.

The prickling reasserted itself with a flare-up of electricity, somehow not hitting Max as it shot forth from underneath his hand, where manectric was.

But it wasn't the same manectric. Her fur had turned spiky, though he was somehow not touching any of the new spikes, while the mane on her head had largely vanished in the process. She was bigger, as she revealed when she rose, Max's hand having to move with the Pokémon. He saw that her tail was gone, and a brief touch on the sides of his shoes revealed that she had sharp claws on her paws; far sharper than normal.

She had Mega Evolved.

Max let go of his Pokémon, rising back to his feet as the red aura started thinning. Even as he did that, a grinding noise suddenly roared into life somewhere in front of him. It caused arm-thick arcs of electricity to pass between the ends of manectric's spikes, but she didn't launch any of it, instead waiting for the aura to disappear and a target to present itself.

The noise turned out to be a metal wall separating yveltal – Max got about two seconds of vision on it – from the two of them, and when the noise stopped, he became aware that there was another sound in the room. It was heartfelt laughter; a sound that confused Max. Manectric let the electricity slip away as the source of the laughter came into view once more.

"I must both thank and congratulate you," Lysandre stated when he saw Max looking, ending his laugh, though a smirk remained. "Congratulate, because achieving Mega Evolution is a tremendous feat, worthy of praise indeed. Thank, because it was the final impetus needed for yveltal to awaken."

"What do you mean?!"

"We were using Mega Evolution energy to trigger its awakening. I imagine the proximity of the transformation gave a final push, and in doing so, you have ensured the doom of this world." The leader of Team Flare scrutinised Max and his Pokémon, a cruel smirk and utter calm visible, causing Max to growl in anger. "Though I wonder why Sycamore would give you a Key Stone. To the best of my knowledge, he has been hoarding them ever since the attack in Durocor; the one you interrupted. Where did you get it?"

"In a safe in an office!" Max shot back, pointing up and to his right, but keeping an eye on Lysandre.

The calm look made brief way to fury before settling on anger. "I see. Well. You have done your part, for which I do thoroughly thank you. Now, however, you have outlived your usefulness. Pyroar!"

The Flamethrower that was thrown out met a dazzlingly large Thunderbolt; one that was powerful enough to make Max take a few steps back from his Pokémon before he even realised he had done so. The electricity overpowered the flame with ease, though an explosion happened before the attack could reach the pyroar, and Max saw the Royal Pokémon lope left.

He had almost forgotten doublade was still there, but the Sword Pokémon lashed out at the pyroar with both swords; one barely missing, and the other slicing one of the feline's lower legs before hurrying over to Max. The cut was deep enough to make red spill forth, but he didn't care about that, and neither did manectric, who shot a Thunder so powerful that it made his hair tingle at Lysandre's Pokémon. The attack dwarfed the Thunderbolt of earlier, and it was only by the skin of its teeth that the pyroar avoided being electrocuted; the jump hasty and the landing bad.

Lysandre's Pokémon managed to get up, but then an attack from above gouged a trench in the ground between the combatants. The Hyper Beam stopped pyroar from retaliating, and doublade also stopped glowing the purple of Night Slash. Two Pokémon landed; a salamence and a dragonite, and a gardevoir instantly appeared as well as two riders jumped off the Dragons.

Max had to do a double-check to make sure his eyes weren't lying. Lance? Here? What?

 **~~§~~§~~**

"Lysandre. I had truly hoped there was a case of mistaken identity," Diantha said airily, as though she was discussing the weather. Lance knew it to be a faux-friendliness, and one he paid little mind to. He had other things to do; a decision made the moment that he had descended on his dragonite.

With quick strides, he walked over to the teenager present, who was giving him a look of disbelief. Dragonite and salamence followed, and he sent out flygon as well. "Get on flygon, now!" he ordered. Max didn't move, instead sending an attempt at a murderous glare Lysandre's way. For a kid his age, it was surprisingly good, but he was too young for it to be anything else than vaguely amusing. "Max, listen to me. Diantha will take care of him. We need to stop yveltal."

"We? How?" the teenager immediately questioned, the glare vanishing.

Lance debated honesty for a split second. "Even Legendaries have their limits," he said, sidestepping the point, though he had a feeling Max still saw right through it. "Leave manectric out. I've got a few ideas."

Curious. Telling him to leave manectric out had a visible relaxing effect on the teenager. Perhaps something to do with the Mega Evolution? Lance didn't have a Key Stone, but he knew there was a connection between human and Pokémon that went beyond normal.

He should really talk to Diantha or Ash about that. If they survived.

Everyone got on a dragon's back – Max on flygon, manectric on salamence— as Diantha Mega Evolved her own gardevoir, sending out a gourgeist as well. He saw Lysandre glare, but the Team Flare leader was powerless to stop them, and up they flew, through the roof, and into…

Death.

When the Champions had flown down after Lance had sent out an altaria and his second dragonite to stall the yveltal, the hilltop had been mostly empty of flora, sure, but now, the very ground itself had turned ashen in places; lines that looked like a Pokémon attack. Loud screeching came from above, and he saw the Legendary of Death launch a red beam at dragonite, who effortlessly avoided it, and the attack petered out in mid-air. "So that is Oblivion Wing..." he muttered.

Manectric had been dropped off on the ground, flygon and salamence hovering nearby. Lance spurred the dragonite he was on to join them. "If it's that high, I can only use manectric," Max informed him as soon as he came into hearing range. "Not without risking doublade or xatu."

"Keep those in reserve for now," Lance ordered. The doublade hadn't looked too hot, and xatu was naturally out. Even Miracle Eye probably wouldn't do much; the Dark-type was exuding an aura that probably made weaker Psychics utterly ineffective. "I'll get the other dragonite to set up a thunderstorm. You and flygon stay close enough to manectric to keep the Mega Evolution going. Play it safe, Max," he added. "Flygon is agile, but nowhere near as nimble as my dragonite."

He didn't wait for an answer, tapping his foot on dragonite's flank. His starter shot off into the air, charging an Ice Beam as he went, but a powerful flap of wings shattered the attack.

This was not going to be easy.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Keith looked up from tending to the injured Serena after a very hectic last ten minutes.

First Serena had hit her head on the stairs, knocking her out cold. The shelgon that had done it had paid for it as every single of their Pokémon that was in a position to do so had launched an attack at it. The Dragon-type had managed to weather those attacks, with some help by the Pokémon that had been covering it, but then a surprise Dragon Pulse had shot through to the armoured Pokémon, straight-out eliminating it from the battle.

Keith had never seen an altaria go berserk on anything. They were generally gentle Pokémon, the kind that one of his mother's colleagues brought to work because the gentle songs they sang helped soothe everyone. Not once had he really thought about them being _dragons,_ too. He knew the type chart, but it just… it just didn't work that way. Swablu were kind, and altaria were cut from the same cloth, end of story.

He had been so wrong.

With unholy, agonising screeching, the altaria flew in, heedless of her own safety, handing out Dragon Pulses like they were nothing and not caring too much who was hit on Team Flare's end. The pignite had been levitated into one by kirlia, while Keith had seen at least two go for trainers instead of Pokémon before he had started to check on Serena. He had seen no more, but the sounds were enough; and he wasn't sure he'd ever see altaria in the same light again. There had been cries of pain that he had resisted the urge to look up at; and a big part of him had felt satisfaction whenever those had happened.

The part that felt shame wasn't quite as big, but it was big enough to make the entire thing awkward.

Whatever altaria had done, it had been enough. Team Flare had been defeated. That had been cause for a sigh of relief on Maël's end, one that had literally been interrupted by something in the distance.

The red pillar of light wasn't at all ominous, no sir. It was out of town, to the north-west, and with a start, Keith had realised that had been where Jane, Danny, and Max had started their search for the hidden base.

Then Maël's kirlia had returned herself, which had caused a bit of confusion. She'd been sent out, only to cry out, seemingly begging to return. Keith had never seen any Pokémon act _that_ frightened, and Maël just hadn't sent her back out after she'd returned herself.

In between trying to remember what to do for head injuries, Keith had asked Maël if he knew why kirlia was so scared all of a sudden. The answer had been negative, but the older boy had guessed that it had to do with the pillar of light. It was as good a guess as any.

Then Keith started tending to Serena again, managing to get her back to consciousness. Sort of. She was clearly not fully there. He suspected a concussion, but before he could check for that, he made the mistake of looking up.

And seeing a huge red attack vanish over Geosenge. "What the hell was that?"

"Red was its primary attack; its visage striking fear in all those who saw it," Maël softly said. It sounded like a quote from somewhere; and Keith only heard him because the Geosenge native had moved to check up on Serena. "We need to get underground. Now."

"Why? Does it have to do with—"

"Yes," Maël said as he lifted Serena, taking care to keep her head as stable as possible. "That red attack? Oblivion Wing." The bottom fell out of Keith's stomach. He'd heard that before, not even two hours before. "Yveltal is free. May xerneas come to save us."

Amen.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Looking up at the sky was hard when at least half of Max wanted to just take flygon and get away as fast as he could. Yveltal was _terrifyingly_ powerful, and every Oblivion Wing he used made that crystal clear. Even if the attack went the complete opposite direction from Max, he could still feel the emptiness of the attack; the complete and utter _lack_ of anything resembling in that beam. The only benefit was that it was a slow-moving attack: some regular Dark Pulses were faster, and one of those had carved up the ground something big about five seconds after Lance had flown up into the air.

Max was very glad nothing had hit any of Lance's Pokémon as far as he could see. The dragonite were blindingly fast, while neither salamence nor altaria were slouches. Unfortunately, none of them had actually landed attacks as far as Max had seen either; yveltal breaking them apart with flaps of its wings or by overpowering them with an attack of its own.

Thunder rumbled overhead, reminding him of the plan Lance had mentioned. He shared a look with his faithful canine. "No holding back, girl. We've got to stop it."

The soothing prickle under his skin turned fiercer as the Mega barked once.

Flygon left without Max having to spur it on. "Not too far," he reminded the Pokémon. "I don't know how far I can be from manectric."

Lance's Pokémon took up position roughly equally far away from manectric and yveltal; making sure to be at least thirty feet away from the shortest path between the Electric-type and her target. If Max had to guess, that put them about a hundred and twenty feet away from either of them.

Hitting a target over two hundred feet away was hard, especially for electrical attacks, but Max had confidence manectric could do it.

He saw manectric call down lightning to fuel herself, but a guttural cry from up above announced that yveltal had actually been hit. A hint of pale pink wafting away, and the furious Dark Pulse at a diving altaria, gave away who had hit it; the Moonblast effective in typing, but not too effective in actually stopping a rampaging Legendary.

Still, it was something, and yveltal focusing on altaria meant that it left itself open for a Fire Blast from the salamence on one side and a Dragon Pulse from the dragonite Lance was riding on the other. The Dragon Pulse was blocked, but the fire hit, and once more, yveltal cried out in annoyance.

Legendaries or no, they were Pokémon. They could be hit; they could bleed; they could be defeated.

And then manectric unleashed the Thunder.

The attack was probably large enough for Max to stand in and be enveloped completely; aided by the dry thunderstorm and the static in the air. It shot towards yveltal unerringly, hitting the Legendary in its clawed feet, and causing an unholy screech, followed by an Oblivion Wing down.

Max's heart skipped a beat as flygon moved forward, circling around to avoid the attack, but he need not have worried. Whatever the Mega Evolution did, it had also done nothing to take away from manectric's speed, and she used that agility to move out of the way, easily avoiding the signature attack.

Then one of Lance's Pokémon scored a hit, and yveltal's attention was drawn back to its aerial opponents, giving manectric the time to recharge after that barrage.

Flygon and manectric both moved again, the latter chasing yveltal, the former ensuring Max never was far enough away to break the Mega Evolution. The Legendary gave them no heed, giving Max enough time to look around and see what Lance's Pokémon were doing to try and stop the yveltal.

Constant attacking was a good summary. All of them flew around their opponent, using all three dimensions, with no fixed position or easily discernible movement pattern to exploit. The salamence was the one attacking the most, alternating Fire-type and Dragon-type attacks that looked like they sacrificed power for speed. Most of the attacks yveltal launched were sent its way, and the blue Pokémon dodged, rolled, and otherwise used movement to get the hell out of dodge.

Both dragonites were careful to let the salamence draw most of yveltal's ire, only attacking from yveltal's blind spots as well. They moved in synchronicity, often attacking together. The one Lance was riding stuck to Ice Beams exclusively, while the other was casually throwing around Thunders like they were nothing, though it didn't draw on the thunderstorm it had created.

Manectric hit a second Thunder at the same time as Lance's altaria hit what looked like a Moonblast, and that really set yveltal off. Flygon lurched up and to the right as the Legendary flapped its wings powerfully, rocking the skies with a Hurricane. Max held on tightly, and flygon weathered it better than he had expected, but yveltal wasn't done yet. Three Dark Pulses were sent out towards the dragonites and salamence, an instant before it turned on altaria. A strange blue enveloped it, and altaria tried to get out of the way, only to get clipped by one of the wings.

The blue Pokémon righted its flight about twenty feet down.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Dark Pulse, Hurricane, Oblivion Wing, Dragon Rush. Those were the four attacks Lance had seen yveltal use up until now. The last move had been a nasty surprise, though altaria had dodged most of the impact. The displacement spoke of a heavy Pokémon; probably around the same level as dragonite if not beyond. That nullified a few half-formed plans.

The Champion looked down, spotting a surprising amount of green and brown below. They'd moved closer to Geosenge, perhaps a half a mile. Maybe less. Gauging distances was hard at this height.

He held on tight to his dragonite as the orange Pokémon dove hard to avoid a Dark Pulse, feeling the wind and gravity press against his face. Below, he saw the Mega manectric unleash another artillery attack, making the most out of her ability to manipulate her type in ways that his dragons could not. He had no doubt dragonite could match manectric in throwing out powerful Thunders, but Electric-types were better at getting the most out of the electricity present in the air itself; like now. Despite the obvious difference in level of training – a Champion's Pokémon against a mid-tier Trainer's one – the Mega manectric would probably outlast dragonite.

If neither of them got hit.

The continuous attacks on it had made yveltal angry, if Lance had to guess. It was near-constantly trying to use Dragon Rush to get at one of his dragons – usually salamence or altaria, who were the slowest of the four fighting – and it had stopped using the fairly slow Oblivion Wing, instead going for Dark Pulses, which were quick to be launched and just as devastating.

If they were to end up over Geosenge, anyone on the ground would be in huge trouble from just the flying debris that came with destroyed houses, let alone the attacks themselves.

He could not let that happen.

His sixth Pokémon, the only land-bound Pokémon he had on his team, came out. The goodra wasted no time in manipulating the thunderstorm overhead to also include rain to make use of his Hydration ability, and then he started doing the same thing Max's manectric was doing; carefully aiming before launching an attack. Sadly, it had to be an energy attack instead of a projectile – Sludge Bombs wouldn't work due to the distance, but what Lance wouldn't give for the yveltal to have to fight off toxins as well as Pokémon…

"Lance!" the teenager yelled from flygon's back, somehow having gotten close enough to be within shouting range. "Can you get dragonite to attack at the same time as manectric?!"

The reply was lost to speed as dragonite rushed up – and flygon down – to avoid an attack, but the idea was decent. Perhaps the combined electricity would be greater than the individual attacks. "You heard him. Get close to your son."

Anything to stop yveltal.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Scores of years upon scores of years had passed, and for over two centuries, all that had graced the cavern on a remote island, equidistant from both Kalos and Prudan, were migrating Pokémon looking for a place to rest, sheltered from the elements. The landmass was barren, holding nothing but rocks, and nautical maps merely pointed out its location; but not its name, for it had been given none.

Yet, deep within the cavern, where no Pokémon had trod for ages, stood a thing most unlike anything else on the island. It was best described as a tree without foliage; its roots deep in the stone and its branches growing mostly sideways, as there was no sun to grow towards. Had humans found it, they would have been amazed at the capability of this tree to live amidst the barren wasteland, and tests would have shown that the tree siphoned all the life and nutrients out of the soil in the area, creating its own environment to live in.

Peculiarly, if light ever found its way into these depths, observers would find that the tree had a most unusual colouring of pale blue and black.

Normally, that would have been that. However, the eleventh of September was anything but a normal day, and unnoticed to everyone, a glow slowly, but surely, started to come from within the tree's core, enveloping the black in pale gold.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Synchronising the Thunders did work. In fact, it worked better than Max had been expecting, freezing the Legendary in place as it twitched and shook under the electricity entering its body from claw – manectric's doing – and wing – dragonite's work.

Two seconds later, the combination felt like a really, really, really bad idea.

A shriek tore itself from yveltal's throat, cutting straight into Max's body. Utter _terror_ overwhelmed every feeling within him for a moment; drowning his senses out, vision narrowing, blood rushing in his ears. There was nothing they could do, and he was…

Static bubbled up from underneath, exploding into his body from deep within himself. He gasped for air; shaking his head as he felt manectric through the connection they shared. She radiated loyalty, trust, faith: loyalty towards him and his friends; trust in him to help her in all situations, now and forever; faith that they would see this see this entire situation through.

It humbled him.

With a conscious effort, he mentally pushed all of the terror and despair out, refusing to let it back in. He signalled, and even though manectric was too far away to see it, he knew that she obeyed. Electric Terrain spread, and then she started charging another Thunder while yveltal was busy trying to hit the salamence. Most of it missed outright, but one Dark Pulse came close enough that moving six inches down would have been a hit. As it was, the attack continued, striking a tree in its path and obliterating the trunk completely.

And then the Thunder; the most powerful Thunder Max could have manectric manage; aided by Electric Terrain, a thunderstorm, and Mega Evolution; fired, and so did Lance's second dragonite, calling up the attack instantly.

They hit. "NOW!" a harsh voice tore through the air; and it was only when he heard it that Max realised it had been his voice.

And as one, Lance's Pokémon attacked. Four of them went for Hyper Beams; the three other aerial Pokémon and the ground-based goodra, while flygon stuck to a Dragon Pulse that caused the green Pokémon's body to thrum with energy, palpable underneath Max's hands. All of the attacks hit, mingling with the ongoing Thunder and causing an explosion that flygon navigated with expert precision.

Yveltal plummeted, losing half the height it had before righting itself, and where its shriek had caused terror mere moments before, now Max felt nothing but determination.

The retaliation was to be expected, and even from Lance's flygon about a hundred feet away, Max could feel yveltal's Dark energy soar as it prepared to unleash an attack. He couldn't see it, because the Legendary's back was to him, but he saw the red glow peek around the edges of its wings.

Wings that were angled downward.

Manectric ran, and without Max having to spur the Dragon on, flygon burst into motion.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Lance wasn't completely certain what in the name of dialga had just prompted the teenager to nearly rip his voice out of his throat like that, especially when all it did was to signal something Lance's Pokémon had been looking out for anyway. The Electric Terrain had been a give-away that there'd be something powerful coming, as had the sheer amount of static electricity building in the area. He had felt it in his hair, of all things.

The pay-off was good, if nothing else. It had taken six Pokémon to unleash some of their most powerful attacks, helped by the weather and determination, but the Legendary _bled_. Not literally, not as far as he could see, but it was clear that it had taken a significant beating from the electricity and the explosion.

The fact that it moved into an Oblivion Wing wasn't a surprise; the move was its signature for a reason, but the angle made Lance wonder. It wasn't aimed at any of the aerial Pokémon, who would have to dodge it while fighting through post-Hyper Beam lethargy. Instead, it was aimed at the ground, and…

And the Mega manectric. That wasn't…

 _Was he insane?_

His flygon; the one Max was on and the one Lance was pretty certain he had given detailed instructions to keep the boy safe, passed by yveltal in an entirely too-close manner. Sure, it was still twenty feet, but that was nothing to a Pokémon with that wingspan. His own dragonite followed, a bit slower and a lot higher.

A moment later, as yveltal let loose a cry, he at least saw the reason for the move: manectric was also on the run, trying to get away from the Oblivion Wing that had just been unleashed. She used Quick Attack to gather more speed, soon vanishing from sight as the very air turned red with malevolent energy.

Judging by Max's lack of sudden shock, which would have happened if manectric had been hit – teenagers always reacted that way to one of their Pokémon being hit by a powerful attack – the Oblivion Wing hadn't hit the canine.

The ground, however, was not so lucky.

An area at least three standard size arenas large had become blackened, ashen, _dead,_ from the Oblivion Wing. The remnant of the tree that had been splintered earlier when yveltal had missed a Dark Pulse turned into dust and motes before Lance's very eyes, and no colour remained in the area. Even the Electric Terrain had vanished, and Lance was fairly certain it hadn't been used up in that extended Thunder.

Seeing that, he was rather thankful that goodra had been at the other side of yveltal, launching attacks from an area that hadn't felt the Legendary's wrath just yet. Manectric was a lot better at getting away.

Curious. Either he was mistaken, or it looked a tiny bit rejuvenated, as if it had recove…

Was Oblivion Wing a life- _stealing_ attack instead of a life- _draining_ one?

This was bad. The area underneath hadn't been all that alive; plants and bugs not having the most vitality to drain, but if it hit something that had more energy _to_ drain, it'd gain back proportionally more, and the longer the fight went, the harder it'd be for them, and that was even assuming there'd be help coming eventually. Diantha could help once she'd scoured the base, but that would be a while.

Lance hoped that everyone was evacuating Geosenge as soon as they could. In part, it was for their safety, but in equal part, it was for keeping a snowball's chance in hell of winning the fight against yveltal. It galled him to be so focused on his own exploits and not the well-being of people, but yveltal, like any of the greater Legendaries, was perfectly capable of widespread destruction. If they couldn't stop it...

The Legendary started flying again, heading straight for the town up ahead, and resolve coalesced in Lance's mind and body. "After him," he called out at his Pokémon, even as a natural bolt of lightning arced down and as the rain intensified.

And into the storm they dove.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The basement crisis room underneath the city hall was bustling with activity, even if there were only like six civil servants there. One of them was the mayor of the town, and he, plus the others, were trying to coordinate the evacuation with the police.

It made Keith feel a little left out, but Maël had led them here, and the mayor had let them in, giving them short thanks for what they had done. One of the others had taken a look at Serena, explaining that she had a workplace first aid certificate, and her diagnosis had been the same as Keith's suspicions had been: a concussion, and probably nothing more. She recommended going to a hospital for it due to Serena's unconsciousness, but with a glance up, the red-haired woman had communicated that it wasn't an option for now.

Even xatu wouldn't be a help had he been here, Teleportation being not recommended for suspected brain injuries.

Right now, Keith and braixen were watching over Serena as she drifted half-aware. It wasn't the most comfortable of places – a corner with just a cushion under her head – but it was the only out of the way place in the room. Maël had vanished after some discussion with the mayor, too, leaving Keith alone with his thoughts.

Part of him wanted to go out, go search for his girlfriend, but he couldn't. Not with the town under attack from yveltal and Team Flare. A few police officers had reported grunts trying to stop the evacuation, though they were just one or two at most. It was a pretty big thing that every report of them being beaten did nothing to boost the mood.

Then the door opened, and Maël rushed in, out of breath and causing at least four heads to turn. "It's moving towards Geosenge!" he said, one hand on the binoculars he had used to scout from the roof. "But something's trying to stop it."

"Explain," the mayor demanded.

"A thunderstorm appeared out of nowhere, and some Pokémon are using that to attack it. At least three," Maël explained swiftly. "One on the ground, two in the air. I thought I saw orange and blue, but at that distance..."

The mayor nodded in understanding. "Excellent work regardless. Stay here now. If it is that close, it won't be safe for you to scout again."

"And we're safe here?" Keith said before he could stop himself. A blush appeared as several people turned to look at him, but he didn't move, instead hoping the mayor could answer him.

To his surprise, the man… smiled. It was a fake smile, meant to put him at ease. Keith had seen his mother wear it far too often at the end of the month. "This room is made out of reinforced concrete, son. If anywhere is safe, it's here." Then, he turned around, taking a walkie-talkie to communicate with the police as he did so.

Keith prayed to groudon that the mayor was right.

 **~~§~~§~~**

A Dark Pulse ripped through a home on the outskirts of Geosenge; an explosion coming from inside the detached house as some or another appliance was hit. Thankfully, manectric had already jumped away, but she was starting to feel the pressure. She hadn't been hit directly yet – unlike salamence, who was flying a lot more careful now, and unlike goodra, who had been knocked out after two hits – but the running battle was starting to wear on all of them. Yveltal was included, but between Oblivion Wing apparently working like Absorb – Lance had dropped that bombshell on him a few minutes back – and just the fact that it was so much more powerful…

No. Max shook his head. Failure was _not_ an option.

Something shifted inside him; the gentle prickling feeling that he had recognised as the Mega Evolution bond turning laboured as more electricity flew upwards. A Dark Pulse blocked it, luckily exploding instead of pushing through to the ground.

Yes, she was definitely feeling the strain of attacking, attacking, attacking, and then attacking some more. Max had no idea how long they'd been trying to get the yveltal to stop, but it was much longer than regular battles were. Even if she hadn't been hit directly, fatigue was a thing, but the greater problem was that her reserves were starting to run on empty.

It made the fact that all the dragons were still fighting even more impressive. Right now, it was the lightning dragonite, as Max had started calling it for himself, darting all around the Legendary, launching Dragon Pulses like they were simple Water Guns.

"There isn't a lot left," Lance said as he flew up on the other dragonite's back, having just returned from tending to his salamence with the extract he had sent Max a few weeks back. "You might want to give some to manectric."

"Won't work," the teenager replied. "She's running out of juice more than she's running out of energy." Shingles went flying off of a roof, dragonite using wind drag to pull them off and drop them into the Legendary. "She..." Max abruptly realised something. "Can you keep yveltal completely busy for a minute?"

"It'd help if I knew why."

"My clefairy knows Healing Wish," was Max's reply, and Lance instantly understood, pressing the bottle into the teen's hand before whispering to his dragonite.

Max whispered instructions into flygon's ear, and as both dragonites engaged yveltal – Lance having somehow swapped to salamence in the ten seconds he hadn't been looking – the smaller dragon flew to the ground, past a roofless house and into its front garden. His Mega showed up moments later, barking happily at seeing her Trainer; the bond thrumming with excitement despite the more pronounced sense of fatigue.

For the first time in what felt like ages, Max's feet touched solid ground, and it took a moment for him to find his balance. Then, he quickly sent clefairy out, who spent a moment goggling at the Mega before turning to Max as he started explaining his plan quickly.

Strange. Max knew clefairy were fairly sensitive Pokémon, but she didn't seem to care about the oppressive aura that yveltal was giving off as he finished up.

He heard flygon take off, a flap of wings bringing the dragon back a small distance as clefairy created a cloud of blue, sending it towards manectric, who just had to stand there and wait for the healing energy to start working.

The clefairy wavered, but Max caught her before she toppled over, one hand supporting her as the other brought the bottle to her lips. "Drink th..." he said, before a loud bang overhead made him flinch, jostling clefairy and the bottle. No extract was spilled because there was so little left, and Max chanced a look overhead to see a Pokémon spiralling down in the distance, Lance returning it from afar. "Shit," he said, barely hearing his own voice.

Clefairy signalled she was done drinking, and Max returned her. Manectric nuzzled her nose into the back of his hand, licking it and making his wet hand even wetter. Then, she bounded away, jumping on the fence, a window sill and then onto the roof, her fur already sparking and the bond almost stinging in its intensity. It was a comfortable feeling, but not one that dispelled Max's fears.

He got back on flygon's back, and as they rose into the air, there was a weird glint that caught his eye from out west, beyond the thunderstorm that had moved with them.

Then he ordered flygon to move closer to Lance so they could strategise.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Losing altaria to a Dragon Rush after she had to dodge an Oblivion Wing had not been in Lance's plans, but at least the manectric was back in the fight. Truth be told, he'd had to adjust his opinion of the canine over the past fight. Mega Evolution did nothing to instincts, and she had been constantly aware of what she could and could not get away with without her Trainer being there to guide her.

Speaking of… "Max, can you hand me xatu?"

"Why?" the teenager asked as Lance's flygon took a moment to fire a Dragon Pulse. It splashed on a wing at the same time as a Thunder hit yveltal from below. "I'm not leaving."

"'Course you aren't. It's for getting Diantha here. We need her Pokémon."

"Will she be able to help us after..."

"We don't really have a choice," Lance interrupted, sighing. A house underneath caught fire from an explosion, but whatever had happened, the evacuation of this area had been incredibly efficient. It made him wonder if one of the families living here had some Teleport-capable Pokémon to get everyone out.

Max nodded in understanding, and he fiddled with his belt. Flygon automatically adjusted her position to support him. "You'll need to get some distance between him and yveltal. Its cocoon scared him a lot, and the aura is worse now."

Lance nodded. Powerful Dark-types had that effect on Psychic Pokémon. "I'll fly a mile back before doing it," he said as he accepted the plain pokéball. "Keep it busy."

"I'll try," the teenager said before quickly telling flygon to move, using an arm to point in the direction he wanted to go.

Salamence flew off, not needing to be given orders, and only a few seconds after they'd started flying, the rain stopped whipping in his face. Goodra wasn't there to keep it up, though the thunderstorm itself was still there, occasionally being boosted by dragonite.

It took under a minute for him to feel safe to send xatu out. The fight was visible in the distance – a paired Thunder and two Hyper Beams hitting even as Lance looked – but that didn't matter. It was the aura that was the factor, not the sight.

Xatu looked more than a bit uneasy, twitching slightly, but the Mystic Pokémon didn't flee on sight. "There is a woman in white fighting in the base, with a gardevoir by her side. Find her, tell the gardevoir that we need her help, and then guide them to us," Lance instructed the bird. "Teleport back as close as you feel you can when you find her."

Xatu accepted the instructions with a sage nod, as they were wont to do, but then a weird source of light illuminated the dead ground around them. Both looked up.

In the distance – maybe a mile away if the size was any guess – a blue Pokémon ran across the barren ground, bringing along a golden-pink aura. Lance recognised it instantly, and he immediately spurred salamence back into the air, trusting xatu to find Diantha. He needed to hurry to Max, to tell the teenager that they needed to move out of the way.

Xerneas was coming to fight its archenemy.

The Fairy-type Legendary gained slightly on a full speed salamence, but not much, and Lance found Max while the flygon he was on was hovering near a still-whole house, spotting the Champion approaching. "What is that?"

"It's xerneas," Lance answered Max's question, seeing him freeze in surprise. "Find manectric and then _move_. One Legendary we may be able to take. Two is way too much."

"They're going to fight each other?" Max asked, before shaking his head. "Of course they are. They're opposites."

"Exactly. Now go!"

Flygon dove, flying low by the ground over the streets as salamence rose into the air, Lance searching for his dragonites. Hopefully, he could find them before xerneas decided that everything was its enemy, and not just the yveltal.

He found both of them before xerneas announced its presence; a gigantic, almost blinding in intensity, Moonblast slamming into yveltal's back even as the Legendary of Death tried its best to get rid of Lance's starter, but failing for at least the fifteenth time in the past however long it had been.

With a soul-piercing shriek, yveltal returned the favour with an Oblivion Wing. History was repeating itself, as Life and Death fought for dominance.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Pokédex entry:_ _xerneas_ _._

 _Characteristics:_ _cervine_ _,_ _Fairy_ _-type. Est. height_ _10_ _ft_ _excl. antlers, 14 ft incl. antlers_ _. Weight unknown._

 _Detailed information: Little is known about this Legendary. Kalos is its home, but its last confirmed awakening was over a millennium and a half ago. Its most famous awakening was three millennia ago, in the fight that opened the Shalour Bay._ _Ancient writings tell of this Pokémon's mere aura extending life, and its antlers allow it to utilise many different types of attack. It is said to be able to revitalise nearly everything with its signature move Geomancy. It is often estimated to be slightly weaker than its direct counterparts of yveltal and zygarde, though favourable typing grants it advantages._

 _See also:_ _yveltal,_ _zygarde, groudon, kyogre, dialga, palkia.  
_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Legendaries, especially the one-of-a-kind types, are the closest things to gods in Pokémon. As such, they're appropriately powerful. Yveltal slightly cheats with Oblivion Wing, but all the wailing Max and Lance did on it this chapter? Not even close to bringing it down. Hitting fast Pokémon is pretty hard, though, and Lance's team is pretty agile and trained for endurance.

Prudan is my equivalent of Poké-Britain. It's located a bit further away from Kalos than the British Isles are from France, though.


	30. Illuminating Aftermath

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 30:** **Illuminating Aftermath**

A light-green Pokémon and a yellow-blue Pokémon sped across the abandoned streets of Geosenge, both looking only for ways to get away from the two Legendaries fighting while Max had craned his head to keep an eye for any stray attacks that may come their way from overhead. His heart beat in his throat as he saw xerneas and yveltal go at it _hard_ , creating attacks that were almost palpable from the distance they were at. There were Moonblasts and Aurora Beams, and Dark Pulses and Hurricanes. Yveltal couldn't use Dragon Rush for up close, but xerneas looked content to...

Flygon let out a keening cry, and Max dared to look ahead for a second, spotting Lance's salamence descending. It let out a growl, and manectric barked back. She slowed down, but didn't quite stop fully before she leapt onto the salamence's back, and the final evolution of bagon flew back up. Flygon followed in a spiralling climb that went almost completely vertical, Max having to hold on tight to the Pokémon's neck as wings beat hard around him, drowning out most sound.

A loud explosion overcame the buzzing regardless, and flygon stopped abruptly, throwing up a glimmering Protect in an instant. Salamence also reversed to get behind it, and nothing happened to either of them.

But around them, Max saw the shock wave from two attacks meeting tear through the air. He glanced a look down when the Protect fell, and despite the distance, he had the feeling that there had been a lot less destruction underneath when he had been standing there not even ten minutes back.

He found Lance far away from the fight, alternating between looking at the Legendaries and looking west, in the direction of the base. "Good. You're safe," the Champion said by way of greeting. In the distance, the yveltal was hit by something xerneas did, but Max hadn't been facing that way.

"Diantha not here yet?" Max wondered. Flygon responded to his gentle nudge, shifting to face the titans battling. "What can we even do?"

"Without Diantha, nothing," Lance replied. "We can try to get the better of yveltal, but if xerneas is hostile to us, I don't have a lot to deal with it, and neither do you."

Max conceded the point, knowing full-well that only manectric and maybe sceptile could last longer than half a minute in combat with a Legendary, and his starter needed to fight in close combat to even do something in return. To a Pokémon that capable of destruction from afar, he could do absolutely nothing. "So we just wait and let them destroy Geosenge?"

"Crude, but accurate," Lance said. "I know. It goes against everything I want—" An attack interrupted Lance's words, though flygon again shielded them without any problems. "I want too. Neither of us want to give up, no matter what, but sometimes it's just better to wait and strike later." Max looked over at the Champion, who caught his gaze, giving a weak smile. "You and your friends have saved so many lives, just by giving us that warning."

Looking down at the destruction, Max imagined yveltal and xerneas going at it without Serena, Keith, and Maël successfully convincing the police to evacuate the city, however long back that was. It wasn't a happy thought. "I hope Serena and Keith are okay," he said as he looked at the city hall in the distance. There was smoke coming from that direction, but the building was partially visible behind it. "That doesn't look good."

"Was it just you and Danny in that base?" Lance sounded surprised, but before Max could answer, another explosion echoed through the area. "Come on Diantha…"

Max turned back to look at the fight as a Hyper Beam impacted pink ground, xerneas having moved away before it could hit. The attack disrupted the Misty Terrain, causing a crater several yards wide and deep, but what remained of the terrain flowed into a pink orb that quickly grew to about half the size of xerneas's antlers. It fired the Moonblast up, a slight twist in the trajectory causing it to hit a wing despite yveltal attempting to outfly it.

A Hurricane did little to hinder xerneas, who was behind a personal Light Screen, but the already damaged houses around it suffered greatly, wood and stone and glass spreading outwards and causing more damage in homes behind them. The Dark Pulse did more to the Legendary, but xerneas took it, instead glowing green.

The glow expanded onto the ground, covering everything from stone to shrubs, from living soil to dead trees, until some unnoticed signal. Then, even as an Oblivion Wing bore down on xerneas, it rolled back twice as fast, the energy manifesting as an aura over xerneas.

One that nullified Oblivion Wing. Not blocked it in an explosion, not diverted it to the side, but made the red energy vanish from existence. Max felt his jaw drop. Everything else that had even been touched by it had been drained of all energy, and even before, xerneas had taken care to block or avoid it. To be able to just do that…

"So that is what Geomancy looks like," came a woman's voice, and Max nearly unseated himself in surprise. "My apologies for being late. Lysandre was beaten, as were at least seven grunts and a Scientist. I was on my way up when the xatu found me." The dragonite she was on hovered close to flygon, and Max accepted the pokéball the Kalos Champion was holding out. "What are our resources?"

"Just these five," Lance answered. "You?"

"Gardevoir can't go Mega, gourgeist is out." She fixed a curious look on Max, but then she turned to look at the fight, and Max followed her, immediately wishing he hadn't. "I think I'll keep tyrantrum inside as well," Diantha said through the pink light that had imprinted itself on the inside of Max's eyelids. "That leaves us with ten Pokémon, unless… What's your name?"

"Max."

"Unless you have more Pokémon that can at least hold their own?"

Max shook his head, finally getting rid of the pink as well. He chanced opening his eyes. "Just manectric," he said, feeling the prickles intensify for a moment. "Sceptile's the only other that could be strong enough, but he's close combat."

"That's ten Pokémon, four of which are unable to use their own Type and at least six of which have already fought in the last thirty minutes," Lance summarised shortly, sounding worried. "Against an unleashed xerneas. These odds are not ones I like."

A cry of pain from yveltal – a Moonblast impacting it straight in the chest, causing it to drop at least fifteen feet – gave Max the idea that the Dark-type Legendary agreed with that. In fact, the yveltal made moves to get away from xerneas entirely, starting to fly away from the watching Trainers as well.

Xerneas wasn't about to let it do that, and a second Moonblast was barely blocked by a Dark Pulse. The resulting pressure exploded all the remaining windows below where yveltal was at, if Max saw it right, and one roof collapsed as well. "Better think of something fast, Lance. They're coming this way."

"I had noticed," Lance shot back, and Max could hear the reprimand in his voice. "Diantha? You're the one with the most Pokémon."

"The two of you, attack yveltal," the Kalos Champion said after an Oblivion Wing sapped the life out of two streets. "It was awakened to destroy. Xerneas responded to that. If yveltal is gone..."

"Then there is no reason for xerneas to fight," Lance finished, while Max finished the same thought in his mind. "I thought they fought to the very end three thousand years ago?"

"The most recent time they awakened, it went the same as now. Yveltal woke up first, destroyed a settlement, and then xerneas stopped it," Diantha replied. "I know it's a guess, but it's the best shot we have."

Neither Lance nor Max could disagree with that. "So. What do we do?" Max asked. "Can't put everything into it."

"Waiting for xerneas to hit a Moonblast would be best," Diantha opined, even as that happened. "Like that."

Sadly, they were too far away to make use of this time, and by the time they had gotten close enough to be in range of attacking effectively, yveltal was trying to fend xerneas off once again. The aura of dread that it was giving off was… faltering. Max didn't really have any other words for it. One moment, it was as strong as it had been, forcing him to focus on his bond with manectric, but the next it could just as well be non-existent.

They didn't have to wait long for xerneas to land another Moonblast either. The Fairy-type Legendary was ruthless in pressing the advantage against its enemy, and yveltal, whatever else, looked downright sluggish compared to earlier. It didn't even try to avoid the attacks, nor could it just flap its wings and dispel them like it had done earlier. Instead, all it did was to block with powerful – but weaker than before – Dark Pulses. They still managed to keep the Aurora Beams at bay, but Moonblast? Not a chance. Type advantage and sheer strength obliterated the Dark-type attack.

And when the Moonblast hit, they sprung into action. Flygon reared up, going completely vertical for a second to launch a Hyper Beam, while the dragonite Diantha was on also went for that. Salamence launched a Flamethrower – now that the rain had stopped – while Lance's dragonite used Ice Beam. Lastly, manectric unleashed a Thunderbolt, and when Max glanced over, he saw that only minor sparks even made their way into salamence's hide.

The attacks landed on the pink of Moonblast. The Hyper Beams alone were enough to cause an explosion, and the elemental attacks only fed into that, creating a blast that was about twice as big as the yveltal was, with a shock wave to boot. Max felt flygon buoy on the winds, riding it to minimise the effects.

And yveltal fell.

Even as it fell, Max felt the air shift. The aura it was giving off vanished, and to Max's surprise, the yveltal started changing. For a moment, he thought it was a Forme difference, but then he looked again, spotting something familiar from earlier.

It was a cocoon once more, but this time, it was dormant.

Xerneas slowly walked over to the cocoon, creating Misty Terrain where its hooves met the ground. Its antlers stopped glowing, and even its body turned a more muted blue as it circled yveltal's resting place in apparent satisfaction.

Then, it looked up, straight at them. Max tensed, as did flygon, but all xerneas did was give them a long look before it deliberately turned away from them, instead choosing to lay itself down in front of the dark cocoon, looking at something off to its side.

"It doesn't appear hostile," Diantha said softly, as if to not alert the resting Legendary, once her dragonite was close to flygon and Lance's. "And I think that's yveltal's resting cocoon?"

"It is," Max confirmed. "Looked exactly like that. This one's less creepy, though. No aura. I think it's dormant."

Xerneas let out a sharp cry as Max said that, making him suspect that the Legendary had heard every word. It was followed by something that sounded like a command to Max's ears, but what for, he had no idea of.

The Pokémon seemingly did, and Lance's dragonite mimed descending. "Should we?" Diantha asked.

"You know more about xerneas than I do," Lance countered, shooting a look down at the resting Pokémon. "But if dragonite thinks it's safe, I think we should."

They landed well over a hundred feet away, and while Max was happy to feel solid ground under his feet again, he had his doubts about this whole thing. Too much could go wrong, like xerneas lulling them into a false sense of security or Team Flare suddenly showing up to send it into a frenzy, or something else entirely. The thing with nasty surprises was that you didn't know what they would be.

They slowly walked up, dragonite, manectric, gardevoir nearby as they did so. The ground was uneven, and really, really weird-feeling once they reached the Misty Terrain. It felt like stepping into something that both welcomed Max home and made him feel like he was being watched. He felt the normal street underneath, but at the same time, he felt like he was walking on something softer than that.

He was so preoccupied with figuring out what it was that made the Misty Terrain so strange that he missed Diantha speaking to xerneas. He looked back up, meeting the cervine Pokémon's gaze, and froze.

Thoughts, emotions, ideas raced through his mind unbidden, unrelated to each other, Max having no control over any of it. Trying to wrestle control back met a solid wall, vague amusement, and emotions he could not identify.

The release was as sudden as the seeming mind-reading was, and between catching his breath, Max looked at Lance and Diantha to see if they had experienced the same thing.

He found out that he had no idea if they had been.

Then, suddenly, xerneas rose to its feet. Hooves? It was about ten feet tall, maybe eleven – tall enough to tower over any of the others, but still dwarfed by the cocoon behind. It stomped one of its legs on the ground once, calling to them with a cry that sounded soothing.

Then it started glowing green with Geomancy. Max tensed, but it was more out of habit than out of feeling threatened. There just was something very non-threatening about it. "What's it doing?"

Max's question wasn't answered because xerneas added pink to it at the exact moment that he spoke up. It wasn't Misty Terrain-pink, Max knew, but he had no idea what it could be. The light brightened in intensity, though it never became hard or painful to look at, strangely.

The pulse of green and pink outwards was sudden, but before Max could dodge it, it washed over him, and… It felt _wonderful._ Aches he hadn't felt he had just vanished, his shoulder itched intensely for a second before becoming pain-free, and for the second time, the bond with manectric was reignited with that wonderfully comfortable static prickling.

He looked around, and as far as he could see, a wave of green and pink energy crept across town, and if it stopped, it was far outside of his sight. He looked down a bit, spotting a suddenly heavily-blooming garden that had been dead and ash just moments before. " _Life_ ," he whispered.

And xerneas didn't even look tired from pushing out a Geomancy and Heal Pulse across jirachi knew how many miles of land. He shook his head, amazed.

Diantha bowed to the Pokémon. "Thank you, noble xerneas. Do you require help with yveltal's cocoon?" The bell that followed was gentle, but also overwhelmingly negative. "Then we will leave you to it. You have our sincerest thanks."

Max and Lance both bowed as well before backing away from the Legendary, and Max saw manectric do the same. They waited until they were about where they had landed until Lance broke the silence. "That was unexpected, but most welcome," he said, looking dragonite over. "And I have no idea how far that healing energy reached."

"It went underground. It's safe to assume everyone in the Team Flare base has been healed up," Diantha said, knocking Max back into the real world. Of course there still was Team Flare to take care of. A gourgeist appeared as well, for only a second. "And Pokémon in pokéballs were also healed. I think a pincer would work best."

"Agreed. I will go to the exit. You and Max come from the other side. Start by finding Max's friend. We don't need them to take hostages, even if we have ways of removing hostages from hostile grasp." Lance climbed on top of his dragonite. "I'll leave now. We'll meet in the base."

Lance flew off before Max could ask about what was going to happen, but at least Diantha was still there. "Pincer attack?"

"When you attack someone from two sides at once," Diantha explained. "Lance goes down there, we come from the other side and capture them in the middle." She shot a look around; and Max followed, noticing gardens in bloom everywhere, no matter if the houses they belonged to were whole, obliterated, or just damaged. "I trust your xatu can bring us to your friend?"

"To where I left him and another friend," Max replied. "Xatu's not good enough to Teleport to a person."

"Fair enough. That took gardevoir a while to learn as well," Diantha shared casually. "I didn't know there was someone else in there?"

"Jane. She's Keith's girlfriend. We came across them by accident in the museum when we Teleported here."

"In my experience, there are no accidents or coincidences in life. If they were there, it was for a reason. One that worked out in the end." Max didn't really know what to say to that. "Send out xatu. You Teleport, and gardevoir will keep a shield up to protect us."

Max nodded, sending xatu out, whispering orders as the others moved closer, and a few moments later, they left Geosenge behind for the underground base.

Xatu's Teleport was swift, smooth, and silent, and it was only when Max's manectric used Thunder Wave that the two Team Flare grunts noticed them. This, of course, was rather too late, and the paralysis was followed by gardevoir levitating them before dumping them in a corner, One of them grunted in pain, but Max only had eyes for the floor near the wall.

Danny had gotten up the moment gardevoir had dropped the first man, and he ran towards Max, eyes… wet?

It must have been a minute before the two stopped hugging. As right as the bond with manectric felt, this was even better; both deeper and stronger, with relief mixed in, and when they released each other at an unsaid signal, Max found his own vision a little blurry, and it wasn't because his glasses had slipped off his nose.

He dabbed at his eyes, unrepentant, and only then really noticed what Danny looked like. He had plaster in his hair, and both his face and arms were riddled with dust and dirt, and there was blood on his hands and jeans? "Danny? What the hell happened here? Short version."

"We lost," Jane said from the side – when had she walked up? Max turned to look at her, and immediately recoiled at the sight of her leg. "They were too many. We tried, but then the Pokémon attacked _us._ A zangoose tore my leg up."

"And I got flung into a wall," Danny continued. "Lunatone. Hit my elbow on the wall, think I broke it. Got kinda blurry with pain after that. Most of them left to go find you, those guys took my belt somewhere, and we were just here until some green-pink glow suddenly passed into the room and..." He raised his left elbow, and his other hand pointed at Jane's bloody – but whole, Max noticed with a closer look – leg. "And then you came… What the hel… heck?"

Max followed Danny's gaze, finding it resting on manectric, who bristled her fur in amusement, letting her tongue stick out as well. "Yeah, that's Mega manectric. Things happened."

"We don't have time," Diantha interjected over Danny's snort. "We have Team Flare to apprehend. They..."

Diantha interrupted herself as several Team Flare grunts became visible at the exit of the room that led to where Lysandre had been before. Gardevoir and manectric both sprung into action, quickly hitting the first four Pokémon that were sent out, knocking two of them out cold. Then xatu also joined in, as did an aurorus that the Champion deliberately sent out far away from them. Even so, Max felt the temperature drop before the dinosaur actually used an attack.

Annoyingly, Team Flare knew that their Pokémon had been healed up by xerneas's Geomancy and Heal Pulse, and twelve Pokémon were soon arrayed against them, a fair amount of Dark-types hindering the effectiveness that xatu and gardevoir would have. Max made to go for his belt, but a gentle hand on his wrist stopped him. "Allow me to even the odds. Gardevoir?"

A pinprick of light just below Diantha's neck grew, as did something similar from gardevoir's front. Energy rushed forward from the Champion, wrapping back around from gardevoir, and the world turned rosy red for a moment, and there was a feeling of _right_ in the air.

The ensuing fight was one-sided. Gardevoir single-handedly made sure nothing could get close to them, between diverting three or four attacks at once to hit the Dark-types rushing in and a Light Screen powerful enough that it made Max's skin tingle from four feet away. She enabled the other three Pokémon to just go on the offensive.

Between Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and Hidden Power, the ranks were soon thinned enough – and devoid of the rhydon that had been there as well – that Max felt confident enough. "Discharge!"

Manectric leapt up, taking advantage of gardevoir nullifying a Flamethrower, and started the attack even before she hit the ground. Three Pokémon were too slow, and mightyena, raticate, and a klang soon joined the four other Pokémon already knocked out on the ground. The remaining Pokémon ran, but they all fled backwards, causing their Trainers to have to run back as well to avoid being a target.

They were also nicely clumped up. An order of Thunderbolt was on Max's lips.

"Now!" Danny yelled from… Not behind him? When had he moved?

Max turned away, spotting Danny standing near the two guards, his belt slung over his shoulder. He was looking not at the exit to the room, but rather to the side of it, and there he saw froslass, hidden in the shadows, unleash an Ice Beam that froze two Pokémon to the floor.

And then aurorus came in with a Blizzard, and that finished the fight by simply freezing everyone, human and Pokémon alike. Smaller Pokémon were frozen whole, while the humans were just stuck up to their waists. "Gardevoir, be a dear and go find some police officers."

Half an hour later, two Champions, three teenagers, and two Mega Pokémon appeared amidst a wrecked square. Max saw a firefighter squad stand near a burned store front, while scorch marks were everywhere on the cobblestone. "I'm guessing there was a fight here."

"I hope Keith's okay," Jane muttered in response. "This is where they went, right?"

"They'll be fine. Xerneas's aura thing reached here, right?" Danny asked, and Max gave an absent nod as he scanned the rest of the square. No Team Flare was in sight, but the more he looked, the more signs of battle he saw. "C'mon, they're probably inside."

They all walked up the steps to the city hall, but the moment they reached the top, two people walked out: a short-haired woman whose age Max couldn't guess, and a weedy man in his early twenties. "If you're looking for the mayor, he's in the basement coordinating the situation," the woman told the two Champions. Only then did she notice the teenagers. "Is your name Jane?"

"Yes?"

Both woman and man broke into a smile. "There's a young man downstairs who's been hoping for the past hour that you were okay," she replied as the man turned around, going back into the building. "First we thought it was the girl he brought in, but we were wrong."

"What's wrong with Serena?" Danny asked quickly, reading Max's mind.

"She hit her head and was barely conscious until some kind of weird green-pink covered everything inside. You wouldn't happen to know what that was?"

"That was xerneas using Geomancy and Heal Pulse to undo the damage that yveltal had wrought," Diantha said, shifting on her feet. A sudden burst of light revealed that she'd let the Mega Evolution go; the Key Stone in her charm quiet again. "Could we go and meet with the mayor inside, or is he coming here?"

The answer to that announced itself, as a man in his fifties – hair greying, but still containing traces of its original dark brown – appeared in the door, shortly followed by the weedy man, and two teenagers.

The group broke into three parts. Diantha walked up to the mayor, and Lance followed her after telling Max to stay around here. Keith and Jane embraced in much the same manner as Max and Danny had done earlier, only then they started kissing, and Max wanted nothing of that. After their own embraces, the three others walked over to the stairs and sat down on the top step. "Concussion, huh."

"That's what they say," Serena replied as she sent braixen out. The fiery fox-like Pokémon was beyond happy to see her Trainer be okay, causing the conversation to stop long enough for Keith and Jane to join them. "I just remember a Hyper Beam exploding in front of me, and flying? Must have hit something hard."

"The stairs," Keith said, answering the question that was on Max's mind. "Altaria went _berserk_ after that. Not sure I'm ever going to see them the same way." He gave an exaggerated shiver. "Yes, swablu evolved. Send her out if you don't believe me."

The altaria that came out was smaller than Lance's, but she was also ecstatic at seeing Serena, and room was soon made for the new Dragon to settle on the stairs as well. "Okay. that changes a few things for my Performances." Everyone cracked a smile at the remark, as far as Max saw. "But… I don't think I have a concussion now? Doesn't feel like it?"

"Xerneas did..." Serena gasped loudly, interrupting Danny for a moment. "Yes. Ask Max about that. He knows more. Anyway," Danny continued, intent on finishing what he wanted to say apparently. "Xerneas used a massive Heal Pulse to, well, heal everything." His left arm went up into the air. "This was broken," he said, tapping his elbow with one finger. "But when that Heal Pulse came through? It literally un-broke itself."

"You mean mend?"

"I mean un-broke," Danny told Keith. "I felt the bone shift and grind through whatever weird painkilling effect Heal Pulse has. Strangest thing I ever felt."

"Wasn't as bad here," Jane told them, leaning forward so she could see everyone else. "Worst itch of my life, but it was better than what it was before… Might be a good idea to have a check-up in the hospital though. Especially you, Serena."

Altaria chirped in agreement. "That's what some lady said too," Serena said as the dragon laid her head in her Trainer's lap. "It'll probably be busy. Lots happened. I heard something about an entire neighbourhood being destroyed?"

Max thought for a second. "Sounds about right."

"Max? How would you know?" Keith asked, looking and sounding like he didn't really want to know the answer. "You didn't..."

"He did," Danny interjected. "You owe us that story, Max. All of it, and not the twenty second recap you gave us earlier. That was good then, but we deserve the full story. Send xatu out to block sounds if you want to."

There was no way around it, not that Max really wanted to. Danny was right: he did owe them the full story: Keith and Jane because they'd just been roped in without warning; Danny and Jane because he'd left them after their sacrifice in the base, and he had promised not to keep secrets from Danny and Serena in the first place. Wordlessly, he sent xatu out, the Mystic Pokémon guessing his order without hesitation. Altaria and braixen were returned, and the other teenagers huddled around while manectric laid herself down at Max's feet, a few steps below. "So, Danny and Jane kept something like half a dozen Team Flare grunts busy, allowing me to continue down into the base…"

He had just reached xerneas's sudden arrival when xatu psychically caught his attention. Turning around, he saw Lance waiting just outside the barrier, amused for some reason. "The fight is over, Max. You can let manectric go back now," he said when xatu dropped it.

"I… uh… I don't know how," Max admitted sheepishly, and he heard at least one muffled chuckle. "Manectric likes it this way too, I think."

"That may be," Lance said as he walked over, descending the stairs to Max's Electric-type, "but nearly two hours of being Mega Evolved? Not even Diantha's gardevoir has gone that long, and we don't know if there are downsides to it." His hand made its way into manectric's spiky fur, and the canine gladly leant into it. "Just try to concentrate on letting go, or on the opposite of what you used to enable the transformation."

A minute later, it became clear that neither of those things were going to work. "Do you have any other ideas?" Danny asked.

"One, but it's less gentle. It shouldn't hurt, but I suspect it'll be uncomfortable," Lance said, one hand on his belt. "Hand me the Key Stone."

"Going to have dragonite fly it out of range?" Max asked as he obeyed, fishing the surprisingly cool, softly glowing, stone from his pocket. "Can you keep an eye when the connection breaks? Professor Sycamore might be interested in that."

Serena and Keith laughed at that, while Jane smiled, and Danny shook his head exaggeratedly. "You heard him, dragonite," Lance said as he handed the stone to his Pokémon. "Go."

First came strain, not unlike what he had felt when manectric had been forced to run from yveltal – and flygon had chased him. The soft pull soon became uncomfortable static in the static of the bond, like there were two different kinds in there, warring for dominance, and Max sat back down to minimise the effects.

And then something _popped_ , knocking all the breath out of his body, and manectric shifted back to her regular form with a soft whine. Max barely felt the Mega Stone in his pocket, more focused as he was on breathing steadily and his view shrinking, black overtaking the edges of his vision.

By the time dragonite returned, his breathing had evened out and his vision had returned to normal, but the five around him wore worried looks. Dragonite handed the Key Stone back to Max, and he pocketed it with a muttered thanks, ignoring the others. "What now?"

"The hospital, I think. All of you except… Keith, was it?" Lance said, looking them over. "Max, Serena, you're going to fly there. The rest should go there with xatu – if he's been there before."

They actually had been close to it, months back, and soon, Max was on the back of a dragon once again: the other dragonite this time, while Serena had climbed onto salamence, her own altaria ready to fly beside her. As the Pokémon rose into the air, Max caught a glimpse of the clock on top of the city hall, telling him that it was nearly five in the afternoon.

It had been just five hours, but it had felt like five weeks.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The morning in a Geosenge hotel dawned bright, early, and without clean clothing because all of their stuff was still in Lumiose. Max, for a change, wasn't the one awake first, though Serena was still awake last. All of them had slept well – dreamlessly in Max's case – thanks to some medicine.

Thankfully, sleeping pills were the only medicine they had to take. Danny and Serena had gone in for scans, while Max and Jane had been down at the first aid post, but none of them had any visible problems. Max had been tired after breaking the Mega Evolution, but even that passed after he got some sugar in his system. They, along with what sounded like with the rest of the hospital, were as healthy as could be.

Max had overheard some of the doctors marvel at the Heal Pulse's effectiveness. Apparently, it had outright mended a broken leg on a little girl – the break had happened the day before – and in general, every patient staying had suddenly become healthy, seemingly including those in for long-term diseases and the like. It was a testament to the power that xerneas wielded, and one that made Max doubly glad that they hadn't had to fight xerneas as well.

Sadly, the one thing the Legendary of Life hadn't been able to heal was death, and about half a dozen of those had happened. He'd felt terrible about that until Lance loudly, and in front of his friends, told him to think about what would have happened if they hadn't stopped yveltal.

That, and a stomach that really wanted proper food instead of ice cream, had banished those thoughts.

Now, however, they faced something almost as bad as the day before. The videophones were working again, and they had to contact family, if only to tell their parents that they were safe.

It felt like ages ago, but they had been in Lumiose, and apparently, the siege of Prism Tower had gone a bit wrong when the electrical circuits in the tower itself had been overloaded. The power was back by now – if the news was to be believed – but most of central Lumiose had been without it for about fourteen hours. That, if nothing else, probably made their parents anxious to receive a call.

But the teenagers had talked it over with Lance – Max, Danny and Serena doing most of the talking, because Keith and Jane were still a bit stunned that a Champion would just sit down and have a fast food dinner with them – and they would come clean about being involved. The idea had filled Max with trepidation, but as Lance had pointed out, there was no way that they could keep this quiet forever. Jane had outright said that she didn't want to keep secrets from her parents either, and they knew she was here.

After breakfast, xatu Teleported them over to the Center, where Keith and Jane had thankfully claimed a phone booth already. "So, who first?"

"Whose parents are more likely to freak out?" Keith asked as he pulled up a sixth chair for xatu to sit on. He'd be keeping the sound in, and if anyone thought that was weird, so be it. Phone calls were private. "Apart from my mother. We don't have a videophone."

Serena stepped up. "Let's do my mother first. She might be gone later."

It was as good a reason as any one Max could think up to call Hoenn first, and half a minute later, Serena's mother appeared, her shoulders moving as she did something in her kitchen. "Hi dear," she greeted them without looking up. "The power in Lumiose is back, then?"

"Mum..." Serena started hesitantly, causing her mother to look up. "Can you take a seat for a second? There's something we need to tell you."

"In a minute. The dough won't make itself."

With that, she returned to kneading, and Serena shared an almost desperate look with the rest of them. Danny gave her a patronising few pats on the shoulder, and the follow-up little by-play took up most of the time until the screen suddenly lurched; the portable phone being moved to the sitting area in Serena's home. "Okay. You ready, Mum?" A nod confirmed that. "So… You've heard what happened yesterday? Attacks all over and Legendaries in Geosenge?"

"Of course. It's only been all over the news for the past fifteen hours or however long it has been," came the slightly nonchalant reply. "What of it?"

"Well… WekindawereinGeosengeforthat," Serena blurted out.

Max saw the woman's face go from neutral to confused to alarmed in just a few seconds. "Please tell me you didn't just say what I think you said."

Things only went downhill from there. Serena's mother was visibly angry about them going somewhere they knew was dangerous, and that was only the trip to Lysandre Café with Clemont. The moment they told her about the information about Geosenge, and Clemont sending them away, she let out a furious growl before visibly trying to calm herself. "Of all the things, you did that. Please tell me why, Serena." She shook her head, holding a hand up. "No, wait, actually don't. I'm not sure I'd like it right now. Not over the phone anyway."

"We could…" Serena started, looking behind her, trying to catch Max's eye. "We could come by? Use xatu to Teleport to Vaniville? Explain everything in person?"

"When?"

"Tomorrow?" Serena half-asked, again looking at Max. He didn't see any problems with that. "We're still in Geosenge and xatu getting us from Lumiose to Geosenge was kind of a fluke."

"Tomorrow for dinner, then." Fingers massaged both temples. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm fine, and so are all my Pokémon," Serena answered truthfully. "So… Guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

The call ended after a short farewell, and Serena turned around fully. "That could've gone better," Danny remarked drily, and completely accurately. "Maybe we should have just told her in person."

"Then she would've asked us why we didn't tell her earlier," Max replied. "You okay, Serena?"

The look he got was one of Serena's favourites – the one that said 'boys!' in the way only teenage girls could, but even he could tell her heart wasn't completely in it. "I..." she swallowed heavily. "I'll be fine. I just forgot that… That Mum is very protective. Going into danger like that..." She stood up. "I'm going to need a minute."

The four others stepped aside, and Max saw Serena vanish down the hallway he knew led to some toilets. They shared some uncomfortable looks while waiting for her to return, but nobody, not even Jane, seemed to really know what to say.

The Kalosian girl returned a few minutes later, her eyes a tiny bit red. Danny gave her a quick hug, and Jane whispered something in her ear. "Right. Let's hope this works out better."

Max placed the four calls, but only two of them went through. Neither Danny's nor Jane's parents answered, and the former was a bit surprising. Usually, one of them was home, Max knew. Danny's parents tried to make sure that one of them was at home – usually his Dad – to take care of the growlithe and keep the house tidy. Jane's parents not being there had always been an option due to changing shifts for both of them.

The only one that they wanted to speak to and answered was Max's Mum. His Dad was fighting a challenger, and she told them that she'd go check if he was nearly done before walking out of view. The same thing happened with the call to Littleroot, but finding an assistant – Joshua in this case – was standard, and he only took the time to greet them before walking off to find Danny's uncle.

Professor Birch brought his brother with him once he appeared five minutes into the call, at the same time as Max's Mum sat down again, the clink of glass telling them that she'd also grabbed a glass of water in the meantime. "Your father should be here soon. Both of them were on their last Pokémon."

"How do you know that?" Max knew his Dad didn't want any of them to ask him questions during battles. Walking in was fine, but more than that?

"We had a small version of the League screens installed," his Mum replied, smiling at him. "Rather useful, wouldn't you agree?" Max could only nod. "Now, I guess you're okay after what happened in Lumiose? But why are Keith and Jane here? I thought you didn't travel with them?"

"We don't, Mum, and we're all okay." Max took a deep breath, readying himself. "But we're not in Lumiose. We're in Geosenge."

 _That_ got a reaction, and of course it was Professor Birch who recovered first. "Geosenge… That's where yveltal and xerneas were fighting, right?" Max gave another nod. "Did you see them?"

"Did who see whom?" came the voice of the Petalburg Gym Leader, and he soon sat down besides his wife. "Oh, hello everyone. Wasn't expecting to see all of you."

"Norman… They're in Geosenge."

Four words were enough to make his father flinch, even paling a tiny bit. "Are you okay? I mean, you must be, but… Legendaries fighting is a dangerous thing."

"About that..." Max started slowly, before launching into a mostly accurate abbreviated version of what had happened, helped by occasional comments from the others. The things he didn't mention were his and Danny's membership of the G-men or Olympia's predictions, but the rest was told or touched upon briefly.

As the tale went on, Max saw all the adults in the screens react to what the teenagers were saying, but none of the adults interrupted. Not when he spoke about Clemont making them go, nor when Danny chimed in about why he'd told Max to just go on. He saw the Professor itch to respond when he mentioned manectric's Mega Evolution, and he saw the fear on his mother's face when he said that Lance enlisted him to fight against yveltal. He glossed over the fight's details, only saying that he'd never been in any danger. "And that's… Well, most of it." Did he want to? Yes. "Any questions?"

He heard Danny snort, but his attempt at humour didn't work on any of the adults, not even Danny's Dad. "Obviously you're okay," Professor Birch started slowly, "unless you're hiding injuries to your feet out of view. But I think I speak for everyone when I say… Why on earth did you involve yourself?"

"We couldn't just let Team Flare do stuff!" Max retorted, seeing Danny and Serena back him up from the corner of his eye. "Isn't this—"

"Nobody is disagreeing with that, Max," his mother interrupted, her voice kind, but also a bit disappointed-sounding. Max recognised it as the voice she had used whenever he or May had gotten into trouble when they were younger. Usually May. "But there were more options than just rushing in. Go to the police with all of you, and then take back-up. There is strength in numbers, Max. I thought you knew that."

"Uh, M… Caroline," Serena said, her voice still a bit hoarse from earlier. "We spent half an hour in the police station just waiting, and then everyone had to help with the evacuation. We had to go to city hall because there was nobody else to go there."

Max's Dad shook his head. "That's not true, but let's ignore that for now. Max, I'd like to talk to you. Alone."

None of the other teenagers got up from their chairs, and Max felt Danny's hand on his shoulder in support. "We're not leaving him. What you can say to him, you can say to us."

The Gym Leader sighed deeply as the others in Geosenge agreed with Danny's words. "This has nothing to do with any of you, but if you're not to be dissuaded…" he said, sounding almost disappointed. "Please be honest with me, Max. Being involved with some Legendaries fighting – and not just seeing them… This wasn't the first time, was it?"

Max's insides turned into ice, even as he heard Keith breathe in sharply; the sound amplified in their bubble. How had his Dad guessed? The idea of denying it ran through his mind, but he dismissed it. Not when his father was on the money. "I… Let me think." The fake groudon and jirachi, LaRousse, groudon and kyogre, the Tree of Beginning… Did that thing with the Temple of the Sea count? Manaphy hadn't really done a lot of fighting where he was. "Fifth or sixth, depending how you count."

The only other ones that weren't surprised were Danny and Serena, because they knew all of it. A glance around showed Keith's jaw nearly on the floor, and Jane was looking at him like she couldn't believe it, similar to all the adults, except for the Gym Leader. "You were never _near_ those places, right? You were there."

Max needed a moment to recognise what his Dad was talking about, but then he remembered. The three times in Hoenn, he and May had told their parents that they'd been somewhere close-by, but not completely there. Brock had told them to stay truthful like that, saying that a lie was best if it was as true as possible.

It had taken Max a few explanations to get that completely straight in his head.

"We were in Forina on the last day of the Millennium Comet, in LaRousse when rayquaza and deoxys levelled part of the city, and on the islands directly affected by groudon and kyogre," Max answered, very much not liking where this was going.

"And the other two?"

"We never said anything about. You were on holiday for the first one, I think, and the second… May knows more about that one."

His Dad sighed, while the other three just looked on. "This is… this is a lot to take in, Max. I… no, we," he corrected as Max's Mum did something out of view. "Why didn't you tell us?"

There were a hundred reasons for that, but before Max could reply, Danny's Dad spoke up. "Norman, why do kids hide things from their parents? Because they're afraid of being punished, of something being taken away. I know I left out a few scrapes and tumbles on my journey, way back in prehistory."

The joke fell utterly flat. "Not on this scale."

"No," came easy agreement. "Not on this scale. The idea behind it is similar, though. You can't deny that."

"I think we all need to step back from this," Max's Mum suddenly interrupted. "It's been a lot to take in, and I… I really don't know what to think now, but just sitting here in this call won't work. All it will do is get both sides angry, and we need time to work through everything."

Professor Birch, Max, and Danny quickly agreed, and they ended the call there, but not before Max's parents told Keith and Jane that their parents would be told the basics about this; something they accepted without comment.

Silence reigned after the call ended, and it was Serena who broke it after maybe a minute. "I guess it didn't work out better."

Max wasn't sure whether to glare or laugh at her.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Lumiose City was a bit muted compared to normal, Max found the next morning. They'd arrived back in the Pokémon Center late at night, after a pair of Teleports, and apart from Nurse Joy wondering where they'd been and not getting a definitive answer, nothing had happened before they went to bed. There had been something off, but none of them had paid it any heed before slipping into dreams.

By daylight, however, it became clear that something had changed a bit. Their window had a good view of the suddenly scaffolded Prism Tower, and for some reason, more than a few street lamps outside, Max noticed when he looked out over the street from the third floor cafeteria, had been damaged; the glass blown to smithereens, and a pattern that reminded him of lightning strikes was visible underneath.

Max's intention was to go and find Clemont at his home, knowing from the note on the message board that the Gym was closed until next week, but when he entered the lobby after eating breakfast alone – Danny and Serena taking it slow that day – he saw a very familiar face. One that was obviously waiting for him. "What the hell are you doing here?" Max said by way of greeting.

He and Ash shook hands, while pikachu jumped shoulders, nuzzling cheek to cheek. Max barely noticed the shock. "Looking for you," the Pallet Town teenager confirmed Max's suspicions. "But I don't think that's what you meant. C'mon, let's go outside."

They struck right when exiting, and Max immediately saw the damage that had been inflicted on Centrico Plaza. Several areas within sight were cordoned off with simple traffic cones, corresponding to some or another crater from an attack, and there was one huge area that looked like it had been scorched by way too much electricity.

Oddly, pikachu jumped off of Max's shoulder, walking up to it and looking… proud? "Ash… Did you have anything to do with retaking Prism Tower?"

"Yes. This was mostly Clemont when he finally joined us," Ash told him, stopping at the edge of the discolouration. "Took a while. Team Flare apparently tried to trap him behind some door made out of some material I don't remember the name of." Ash shrugged. "He made the call to overload the tower. Team Flare had rigged some kind of defence mechanism in there, and it was giving us a lot of trouble."

"Us?"

"Me, Professor Sycamore and his Mega garchomp, police..." Another shrug. "It wasn't a hard fight, but we were trying to keep the Tower in one piece." He glanced upwards, as did Max. "But the reason I'm in Kalos? That's all you."

Max was confused for just a second. Then it clicked. "The call I made? That's why you're here?"

"And Lance, and a couple of others," Ash confirmed. He placed a hand on Max's shoulder. "I'm not sure Lance told you two days ago, but that warning saved a lot of lives. Even if we didn't find Team Flare before they could do it, the fact that we were here made a lot of things easier. So cheer up a bit. Your parents will come around."

Max took a step back, surprised. "How do you know about that?"

"Professor Birch called Professor Oak, and Professor Oak told me a few minutes before you came down," Ash shared, sounding entirely too happy for Max's tastes. The fact that everything had been revealed felt like a weight on his mind. He was planning to call sometime in the afternoon, hoping that his parents had had enough time to think. "But enough about that. I heard you also did something else. So, Mister Youngest-Ever-Person-To-Mega-Evolve-A-Pokémon," Ash said, the capital letters audible in his title. "What was it like? The bond, the way manectric is different… Everything."

"Who are you, and what have you done to Ash Ketchum," Max remarked, but a happy feeling spread throughout him even at the mere memory of the bond and its comfortable static, despite the downer thoughts he'd had moments earlier. "The bond is just… electrifying. Yes," he added gleefully, enjoying Ash's eye roll at the bad pun, "I know. Doesn't make it less true. Imagine all the static shocks you get from pikachu when he climbs onto your shoulder, then make it constant and comfortable. It just felt right. A bit too right, maybe," he added, a bit more downcast as he remembered having to let manectric slip back. "Ending it wasn't comfortable."

"Lance told me about that," Ash said as they started walking again. Nearby, a clock struck nine. "I guess you've got some practice to do with that."

"How do you know I still ha… Okay, never mind," Max interrupted himself when Ash loudly snorted in disbelief. "Yeah, I kept that Key Stone. Not like Team Flare's going to use it any longer."

They passed into Vernal Avenue, Ash leading. "Do you have the Key Stone and the Mega Stone on you?" he asked as they passed by a café that was just opening up for the day. "Got a shop to show you."

Manectric still wore the same twine necklace with the Mega Stone, but the Key Stone was in the Pokémon Center.

Two minutes and a surprised Danny – who had just come out of the shower and nearly slipped when he saw xatu Teleport in – later, Ash continued to lead Max. Halfway through Vernal Avenue, he took a left into a smaller street. It wasn't quite an alley, but it was definitely off the main path. It didn't lead to Vert Plaza either – they'd passed that street before.

Max nearly missed the shop, but Ash didn't, and he pulled the thirteen year old in. A bell jingled as the door closed, but the proprietor didn't show up.

The store felt old. The wooden floor creaked under Max's steps, comfortingly rather than threateningly. All of the left and back walls, as well as a large portion of the floor in the middle, was taken up by large shelves holding a variety of things. Max saw wallets, bags, belt, all made out of leather. "Ash, why are we here?" he asked, whispering because it was that kind of place.

"That's the boring section. This is where it's at." Ash was standing next to a vitrine, and when Max looked down into it, he saw… A lot of ways to hold Mega Stones and Key Stones. Necklaces, scarves, headbands, wristbands, rings, even an imitation of Steven Stone's stick-pin… "Get something for yourself. I'll go look for the shopkeeper."

With that, he left Max to his own devices; the teenager just goggling at the amount of equipment on sale for a moment before starting to look at the options.

He instantly dismissed the rings – both the kind you wore on your finger and the kind that Ash had to hold his Key Stone. He was a boy, and boys his age didn't wear jewellery, while he had never liked the standard Mega Ring any bit.

Max bit back a chuckle at the Mega Tiara, imagining his sister with that, and then with a Mega Bandana. Realistically, she'd probably go for a charm like Diantha, but again, that was not something he really liked.

Then he saw a leather wristband; simple, dark-brown and thick, using a pressure button system to open and close. It was adult-size, though – even from afar, Max could tell his entire hand could fit through the opening with a bit of pushing. It'd just dangle around his arm. He sighed, preparing to look for something else when the floor creaked nearby. "The wristband, hm? Very popular with boys your age, yes," an old man rasped as he walked up, pulling a pair of glasses from a pocket on his shirt. He had fully white hair, about down to his shoulders with a bit more curl to it than Max had. "The normal ones sell well. I can make one with a Key Stone mount, yes. Are you interested?"

"Looks like he is," Ash supplied as Max just looked on mutely. "Can you show us some of the normal ones?"

"Of course, of course. Come." They followed the man to the back wall, where various wristbands were arrayed. "Pick one kind. Any one. I don't like to brag too much, but I'm good at what I do."

The kind that caught Max's eye was one with a double layer of leather on one half of the wristband, thinner than the regular band. "This one looks nice…"

"Then that one it is, yes. Your right wrist?" The proprietor didn't wait for an answer, grabbing the wrist and wrapping measuring tape around it. "Yes, yes. It should be done in a week. Leave your next destination at the till later. Now, the Pokémon. I heard a manectric, hm? Can you show it?"

Max obeyed, and manectric was happy to be out, until she sneezed, stepping back into the middle set of shelves with some force and causing items to rattle as the shelves wobbled. "Sorry!"

"Doesn't matter," the man spoke, kneeling by manectric with surprising spryness. "Standard-size stone… Hold still… Done." He stood back up. "I'm assuming you want to use the neck to wear it. Could do a headband with that spike. Collar, necklace, headband?"

"What do you want, girl?" Max asked manectric. "A collar, a..."

Manectric's loud bark answered the question before he could even finish. "Collar it is, hm. Got just the thing. Copper, one centimetre thick. Conducts electricity well, so no heat to worry about. Might not fit now, but I can make it bigger, yes. Will send it along with the wristband."

They started walking to the till, Max digging in his pocket for his wallet. "Isn't copper expensive? It's used in a lot of things..."

"Got it wrong way around. It's used because it's inexpensive. Naturally occurring, see." They reached the till, and a form was immediately shoved in front of Max's free hand. "Just write down where you are… Eh… No, that won't work…" The form was snatched back, replaced by a business card. "Just call this when you're somewhere you'll stay a few days."

That probably worked better, and Max pocketed the card, pulling out his wallet with the other hand, only for Ash to put a hand on Max's wrist. "My present. You earned it."

Try as he might, Max did not convince Ash that he was perfectly fine paying for the equipment with his own money.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Reggie,_

 _You are probably worrying after the news. Don't. I am fine. Team Flare did try to attack the Gym while I was challenging the Gym Leader to a battle. It was a bad decision, and they soon felt our combined might. Their Pokémon were weak, and numbers were the only plan they had._

 _I will leave for Coumarine soon, and should arrive there in about a week and a half. Please send your next letter there._

 _Your brother,_

 _Paul_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And everything is resolved. Xerneas healed everything he could; Danny and Jane were rescued from their position behind enemy lines, and all of them are gone while the adults deal with the ramifications of having a Legendary destroy a neighbourhood or two. Max came away with a new Key Stone and an evolution, and Serena did too. They had all the fun, and none of the burdens.

Well, except for a long-held lie being seen through. Or the psychological effects of being in a literal life-or-death situation (again for Max). Or more than a few other things. Can't all be fun and games.

This is also the single longest chapter I have ever written, barely (by ~10 words in my document, bit more on FFN) edging out chapter 24 in the prequel to this. This was very much not planned, but it worked out this way.


	31. Bright Future

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter** **3** **1:** **Bright Future**

Driftveil City had been one of the places occupied by Team Plasma for over a year and a half. In that time, the Pokémon Center had been stripped down to bare basics; and its use had been limited as well – when only Team Plasma had Pokémon, there just wasn't any need for Pokémon Centers except for them, and without Trainers, the contents of the rooms had been removed because they were used by the new rulers of the area. Even now, months after the occupation had ended, still only half of the rooms were available for use.

It had been a good excuse to book themselves into a nice bed-and-breakfast, Linda and Alice had thought, and between a comfortable bed and a wake-up to the smell of freshly-baked bread, life was really good on this particular Thursday. They had checked in late last night after watching the Driftveil Drawbridge be opened to allow some huge container ships to to pass through, and it had just been a late snack into a shower into bed.

Linda turned around once, basking in the glorious warmth of her sheets in the chilly room. Some cold front was causing historically low temperatures, but when that led to this, she didn't care.

"Linda!" came a surprised yell from downstairs, and she sat up in bed instantly. Someone thundered up the stairs, and a moment later, Alice burst into the room. "C'mon. Y'need to see this."

'This' turned out to be a report on a Legendary Pokémon awakening in the north-west of Kalos. Linda ended up rewinding the report to just understand everything, and after various harrowing reports, aerial shots of the devastation caused, and the like, she was extremely surprised that there had only been half a dozen casualties in Geosenge, plus a few wounded in other attacks by Team Flare.

But whatever the casualties, it hadn't worked. Not like Team Plasma's reign of terror and the government ignoring it. The Kalos authorities: police, Gym Leaders… They'd all reacted in ways that made Linda a tiny bit jealous.

Unova really wasn't the best country. Everyone always said that, but after spending time abroad… She had her doubts.

"Y'know what I'm thinkin'?" Alice asked from the other side of the shower cabin a few minutes after the broadcast's end.

"Still can't read minds," Linda shot back as she rinsed the first round of shampoo out of her long hair.

Alice giggled. "Course ya can't. Good thing too," she added in a softer voice, making Linda suspect she hadn't been meant to hear it. "We should write someone. Y'know, see if they know more 'n us. Yer news is really..."

Linda heard Alice snap her fingers a few times as she seemed to search for the right word. "Sensational?" she offered.

"Ya. Good one. Like, for real, it's all 'bout the damage and what it coulda been like… I bet Danny and Max know more."

Linda didn't question Alice wanting to know more. It was who Alice was, and reading about reshiram had somehow given her ideas for Contests. Her mind was strange, and the Unovan loved her companion for it. "Least Max'll be happy. You know, half his letters mentioned that he hated Team Flare and everythin' they stood for and all that." Both girls giggled. "Knowin' him, if he was in any of those towns that were attacked, he was there to fight them. Y'know, like he did in that one town that I forgot the name of. Got the Grass-type Gym."

"Sounds 'bout right. Must run in the family, 'cept, you know, his Da being a Gym Leader and having to do that." Alice's chair hit a pipe as she stood up. "Did ya hear 'bout what they're plannin' in Hoenn now?"

"Bet your brother's all about that," Linda remarked as she squirted conditioner onto her hand. "Still don't get how you two are so different 'n all. You're twins, raised the same, had a lot of the same friends from what ya told me. Mom always said that nurture 's more important than nature, but wouldn't you be the same as yer brother if that was the case?"

Alice laughed; a melodious sound that never failed to brighten Linda's mood. "Stop thinkin' so much. It's too early for tha'."

"You would say the same if I said this at lunch."

The way Alice slipped into hysterical giggling only served to prove her point.

 **~~§~~§~~**

As much as Sycamore was elated that Team Flare had been effectively dismantled, what with all but one Scientist being captured over the course of the day before, he was less than enthused with the obstinateness of the relevant authorities in not telling him where Lysandre had been imprisoned. He understood the need to interrogate, but just informing him of the location was hardly a hassle. It wasn't like he was going to break his former colleague out, for arceus's sake. He just wanted to know what had moved the man; what had been the impetus for the descent into attempted mass murder, and for how long those ideals had poisoned his thoughts and actions.

Once, when Sycamore had been new at his job, Lysandre had been one of his assistants. The red-haired man had been a year or three behind him in university. The fraternity they had both been part of had meant they were on more familiar terms than was to be expected normally, and when Lysandre had applied, the interview had been a mere formality. They had spent the next three years on what would turn out to be crucial supporting research regarding branched evolutions, but mere days after presenting their final findings, Lysandre's parents had perished in a blaze that had set the entirety of their ancestral manor aflame. He had quit his job after that, suddenly needing to deal with his new role.

To his eternal regret, Sycamore had lost contact after a year or so, only reconnecting when Lysandre had suddenly brought a new innovation to the mobile communications market, maybe three years back. By that point, however, Lysandre had become colder, and their acquaintance never even came close to what they had shared before.

He stirred a bit of his baguette in his soup, idly noticing the heat radiating from the bowl. In the background, the TV blared something or other about some human interest story; the news that was focused on the events of the day before temporarily interrupted. Predictably, they had caused close to round-the-clock coverage, and he had already given two interviews – one late last night, one a few hours back. If nothing else, the interviews meant that he would have a reprieve from journalists seeking comments until some new critical information appeared.

It didn't stop several stations from having staked out the laboratory in case he went out. They weren't allowed to enter, and they kept to that – there were advantages to his position and his seniority – but outside was fine, as it always had been. If the situation had been different, he probably would have gone out anyway, giving a comment, but with what had happened… Solitude seemed the right choice.

A very slight displacement of air out of his sight announced that his solitude had ended, as did the sudden smell of distinct perfume. "I had wondered when you would come to visit," Sycamore said as casual psychic powers grabbed bowls and spoons. "Just put the bread in the oven. It shouldn't have cooled down too much."

The Champion of Kalos took a seat opposite him at the rectangular table, her usual decorum temporarily absent as she slumped in the chair for just a moment. "Apologies for robbing you of your food, Professor, but considering the demands on my time and the need to talk to you… I had rather hoped to find you in the midst of dinner," Diantha said as she carefully ladled soup into her bowl. She was dressed in her usual immaculate white. "It has been a long thirty hours, and I don't expect it to end soon. Even with a fellow, more experienced, Champion to split the burden."

The presence of Lance of Kanto and Johto had been a surprise to Sycamore; one he had found out about while talking to a high-level Trainer helping with the siege of Prism Tower. Privately, that had set off alarm bells, though there was no way he would have been able to get any suspicions confirmed there and then. Nor here and now, for that matter. "From what was mentioned, he took the lead in fighting yveltal, along with an unnamed Trainer who values their privacy for now."

Diantha inclined her head as her gardevoir sat down at the table; the human handing the Pokémon a bowl of soup of her own. "Both of us were in the area when yveltal was awakened. Given yveltal's flying nature and Lance's team consisting of five Pokémon capable of flight… It was an easy choice for me to confront Lysandre, while he and the other Trainer fought yveltal."

"What Pokémon did that third Trainer use? I heard tell of a sudden thunderstorm."

Diantha smiled at him. "My dear Augustine, your fishing for information is very transparent. When you mentioned their privacy, understand that they want to be anonymous."

That was his attempt at wheedling out information over and done with. Despite her obvious fatigue, Diantha was still as acute as ever. Sycamore supposed it was a trait found in most positions of power, to be capable of keeping a guarded tongue even in tiring circumstances, but he had hoped for a bit more information regardless. "One last question, and then I'll leave the topic be," he offered. "How important was that Trainer to the fight with yveltal? I gather he was of some use, given that your gardevoir didn't just Teleport him twenty miles south."

A delicate nail tapped on a cheek as Diantha thought about what had been asked, and a glance or two sideways told him that the gardevoir was as much a part of the discussion as he was. He didn't try to read the humanoid Pokémon. That was a battle he would always lose. "There are multiple layers to that question, Augustine, but you asked about the fight itself. I suppose… Adequate, given the circumstances." With that, she tried the soup, apparently finding it the right temperature.

There was more there than met the eye, but he knew Diantha well enough to know that she would give him no more information. That was fine; there was more to talk about than just the identify of a Trainer who would become known in time regardless.

Briefly, he wondered if it could have been someone he had been due to meet, but he dismissed it. Maple had a Manectite, but not a Key Stone, and with that trio in a cross-city Center – judging by their lack of appearance at Prism Tower – there was no way he could have been in Geosenge.

A few minutes were spent eating, the only interruption that of the gardevoir putting a baguette in the oven from across the room. "You mentioned you needed to talk to me," Sycamore said as he finished his bowl of soup. A slight pang told him that he would need more sustenance than that, and so he refilled it. "What about?"

"Mostly Prism Tower," was the reply. "I have contacted every Gym Leader, but this was the only one that was actually taken over."

That was new information to him. "Clemont said he had gone to investigate where Team Flare had come from, and that he was stopped from coming back for a while." The teenager hadn't been too heavy on the details, preferring to focus on getting his Gym back. "What happened elsewhere?"

"Shalour was besieged from the sea, but that soon ended once Korrina's lucario went Mega. Grant saw them coming similar to Clemont and collapsed the entrance tunnel onto them." Sycamore flinched at the casual brutality. "Forgive me for not sharing your reticence. Not after what Lysandre tried to do."

Sycamore had to concede that point. "And the other three Gyms?"

"Pyrocorde down south and Laverre were practically identical to each other. Team Flare attacked mid-battle with a challenger, and those Trainers helped to fight them off." The alarm for the oven beeped, and conversation waited until the baguette was present on the table. "Olympia had a harder time of it. Apparently, they sent a double team there, and it pushed her rather hard."

"How hard?"

"Let's just say that the Gym'll be closed for renovations, oh, probably the rest of the year."

Given how well-built that Gym was by necessity, what with the constant energy attacks, Sycamore was equally impressed and disturbed at the forced that must have been thrown around there. The surrounding area was probably awash with debris and damage as well. "I assume you're familiar with the general events?" He waited for a verbal answer, but all that came was a hand waving him on. "The police contacted me around half past twelve, mentioning only that Team Flare had taken over Prism Tower..."

It wasn't a long tale, but long enough for both females at the table to refill their bowls as well. "So most of the impasse was actually unwillingness. Good."

"Excuse me?"

Diantha's demeanour changed ever so slightly, but it served to remind him that it was the Champion at the table, with everything it entailed. "When there are such overwhelming odds and strong Pokémon – two Megas, a good part of the Lumiose police, and the like, I cannot help but be suspicious at how long it took. All attacks were meant to obstruct, and there have been arrests of Team Flare moles across all levels of government."

He chose to ignore the implications of him being regarded as a possible mole. Given his prior associations with Lysandre, it made enough sense. However… "Who."

"Malva."

Sycamore wasn't given to swearing, normally, but this was one well-earned exception. "How did all of us miss that?" he wondered afterwards.

"Now you understand why I was capable of thinking you a Team Flare agent," Diantha told him. Somewhere downstairs, something dropped with a loud clatter, and Sycamore resisted the urge to run there. "Truthfully, Augustine, we lucked out. Had it not been for Lance being with me, yveltal would have had a lot more time to sow its destruction."

"Why _was_ he here? I remember him visiting a while back; but that was all to do with that League the politicians want to set up with Prudan. This was most definitely not official."

Diantha smiled enigmatically. "As the saying goes, I can neither confirm nor deny."

 **~~§~~§~~**

The route south of Couriway was beautiful to see and walk through, Max had to admit. Gently rolling hills, a river or two, and just the perfect mix of trees for shelter and open farmland for views made it into a place that was probably the prettiest place he had ever been to on his travels.

Danny had seemed to agree, and after the first day, he'd just stopped taking his camera out of his backpack every time he wanted to make a picture, instead just getting some rope to serve as a cord to allow him to wear it. If he felt a bit silly because he was acting like a typical tourist, he certainly didn't show it.

Truth be told, his enthusiasm was infectious, and Max didn't feel at all bad about being in about five pictures per day. After what had happened a week ago, it had felt like a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders, and from what he knew, the others shared that feeling. The fact that Team Flare was over and done with, with literally hundreds of arrests of anyone involved with them, was so good. Max didn't recall the end of Team Magma and Aqua being so liberating, but then again… He had been ten when that had happened, and ten year old Max had been… Ignorant of a lot of things.

Not that he had felt that way back then.

The feeling of leather on his wrist was a new one, but one most welcome as well. They'd spent the night before in a Pokémon Center, and on a whim, Max had called to the leather goods shop. His order had been ready, and two Teleports later, xatu had brought both wristband and collar with him before collapsing and earning Max the ire of Nurse Joy for not taking proper precautions.

At least he now knew xatu's limits. That was worth something.

"This looks like a good place," Serena stated suddenly, knocking Max out of his thoughts. A glance around revealed an open area, but one with a stream within view, and a stone firepit left in the ground by some of the locals for use by any Trainers. "I think that's Snowbelle in the distance?"

Serena handed her new binoculars – a present for herself for reasons Max hadn't asked – to Danny. "Could be," the oldest of the three said. "Not sure. We'll see tomorrow." He turned to Max. "You going to try again?"

"After dinner," Max answered, checking his left wrist for the time. Quarter to five. "Need to figure something out first."

Both of them nodded, understanding what he meant.

For the past five days, Max had tried every day to Mega Evolve manectric, and every day, it had failed in much the same way as it had back when he'd first tried it, back in May. Spark of energy, flash of light, warm Key Stone, but no dice.

Truthfully, it felt a bit embarrassing. He'd even gone as far as to try two consecutive attempts yesterday, and that had been a mistake of enormous proportions. An echo of a blush tried to make its way onto Max's face as he recalled blinding light into a worried face – and a lost hour in exhausted unconsciousness on a grassy patch a mile out from the Pokémon Center. Professor Sycamore had told him off for that, while Danny and Serena both mouthed agreement while the Professor did so.

At least he had slept like a baby that night.

Max sat down at the stream's bank, dangling his feet in the water. He wasn't afraid of any Pokémon – poliwhirl would keep them at bay anyway – and the cold felt great on his feet as he lost himself in thought and idle stroking of manectric's fur.

When he looked up again, Danny was beside him, his feet in the water as well, a smile on the older boy's face. It widened when he saw Max looking. "You looked miles away."

"How long have you been sitting there?"

"Minute or two? Maybe bit more?" Danny sent a Pokémon of his own out; the pale blue flying Pokémon soaring through the sky. "Something Serena said made me think."

"What about?"

"The G-men," Danny said bluntly, looking directly at Max, his smile sliding off of his face. "They wanted us for keeping an eye on stuff happening here in Kalos. Now that it's over..."

' _Do they still want us to be a part?'_ Max finished in his own thoughts. Truthfully, he had no idea.

He mentioned it to Danny, and both of them lapsed into silence, watching poliwhirl and masquerain play a game involving Bubbles. "Do you want to be one? No, wait, scratch that. 'Course you do. Stupid question."

"Danny..."

"Remember me saying what I thought it was going to be like? Back when we came clean with Serena," Danny asked, giving Max a few seconds to search for the right memory. "Yeah, I was so wrong, but… I've been thinking a bit over the last months. About why we need the G-men. And… Even if we're too young for it, it's something I… something that someone needs to do. To stop everyone like Lysandre. Or that Team Plasma. Or… y'know… Every organisation you and Ash got in fights with." He took a deep breath in. "If they want us to… I'm in."

"Even after breaking your elbow and having that head wound?"

Danny laughed, but it wasn't the happy laugh Max normally heard him use. This was… empty, somewhere. "You're one to talk," he pointed out, just a bit snidely, before smiling widely. "There's another reason for it, too. Someone's got to keep you safe."

Manectric gave a bark of approval at that. "Oi!" Max protested, more out of habit than out of being actually insulted, though manectric's betrayal did earn the canine a glare. She was entirely unrepentant. "I should tell your Dad that you're being mean."

"And he'd probably reply that you probably did something to earn it. He knows me, you see. I don't do being mean to people. At least, that's what one of the teachers said back in school."

"Well, they're wrong."

Both of them laughed heartily at that before falling into content silence, just watching their Pokémon play or just feeling the soft breeze whenever it picked up. It had been ages since they'd just done this, Max realised after a few minutes of doing nothing. He'd always been training or thinking or at best trying not to panic with what was coming up for the last few weeks. To the best of his knowledge, both of the other two had been the same.

Olympia may have had good intentions, and it may have saved the world, but damn if they hadn't felt pressured.

"So. What _are_ you thinking about when you try Mega Evolution?"

Max tore his eyes away from masquerain. "That's personal, you know."

"And that's supposed to be an issue?" Danny replied, grinning widely. "Not a lot of secrets left after travelling together for a year and a half." He cocked his head. "Well, tomorrow. Close enough."

Max had to hand him that one, but he was feeling playful after what had just passed. "And what makes you think I'm not keeping even more secrets from you?"

"Oh, I'm sure you are. I mean, you did take a dare on which girl you liked," Danny said, his grin turning almost predatory as Max groaned. Of all the things to mention, did it have to be the truth or dare session on Danny's twelfth birthday? "Not that that's important because we both know you like Linda. Anyway," he added before Max could protest that falsehood. "It's clearly not working, and Professor Sycamore suggested that there might be some kind of block that I can help you with."

Manectric's soft yap sealed the deal fully for Max. "Okay, so… Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning works."

Max refrained from rolling his eyes. "Of course." He took a deep breath. "Back in May, I tried to do it based on what I felt for manectric, how we worked together and so on." To his right, the Electric-type laid her head in his lap. "That obviously didn't work. Doesn't now either. That was my second try yesterday."

"It seems… I don't know," Danny said, making circular motions with his hand. "Too simple? Like, everyone and everything says the bond is supposed to be something special, something really personal. Everyone has _that_ bond with their Pokémon after six months."

Max hadn't thought about it like that, but it made enough sense. "I've tried to remember the feeling of wanting to stop Lysandre, of needing to stand in his way, and it's… Worked okay?" Max shrugged. "It definitely worked back then, but for some reason, wanting to protect the world doesn't do it now." A sigh. "I don't get it."

"Course you don't. Else you wouldn't be stuck on this," Danny replied, but there was a bit of absence to his tone that made Max suspect his friend was thinking hard.

Silence stretched between them for a minute or so, during which poliwhirl popped up from the water with a gleeful jump and dive, splashing Max's shins. In reply, he tried to kick up some water to splash, but the poliwhirl was nowhere near where he had aimed and the splash was complete and utter trash anyway.

He saw Danny straighten up from his thinking pose; the older teenager muttering something under his breath that even Max couldn't catch before Danny turned towards him. "I… No, sorry. Can you try to not react to what I'm going to tell you?"

That was the weirdest request Danny had ever made of Max, and there had been some strange ones over the years. Besides, after what they'd talked about earlier, he wasn't sure he could even get angry at his friend. "Sure?"

"Okay." A deep breath in. "Be honest with me, Max. Is it _protecting_ you want to do?"

Max was unsure what Danny meant by that. He caught the emphasis, but he was missing something. "Uh… Can you explain?"

"Like… Think about what you feel about Team Flare, and Aqua, and Magma, and Rocket. Any of them. Sure, you want to stop them, but protecting is more of a..." He abruptly stopped himself, pausing, and Max waited in silence. "You don't do protecting. That's not who you are. You don't want to react. You want to act and stop them that way."

"He's right, you know," Serena said from behind them, giggling when Max jerked his feet from the water in surprise. "Always pay attention to your surroundings."

Max put his hand over his face. "What is today? Remember-things-from-way-back-day?"

The girl gave him a weird look as she sat down on the other side of manectric, her hand rubbing the canine under the chin. "You're not someone who just wants to protect everyone."

"You want to fight," Danny added softly, but with certainty. "In general too. We've been travelling for a year and a half, and most of the times I've seen you happy as anything? It's when you're fighting at high level. Gyms, the League… Whenever we break out a full battle too."

"So I should… I should focus on wanting to fight?"

Danny shrugged as masquerain landed on his knee. "I don't know. You've been thinking about this for a while. You know better than I do. It's just… Sometimes people are blind when they look at themselves; only seeing what they want to see. Outside perspective helps." A pause. "Mum, because I know you want to ask."

All of them burst into laughter at that, and then both of them left Max to himself. Danny mentioned something about cooking dinner, while Serena went off to do something with altaria.

"What do you think, girl?" Max asked softly after a few minutes of thinking. Manectric craned her head up, red eyes meeting his own. "Are Danny and Serena right? Should we try it like that?"

Manectric let out a bark, a growl, and then she jumped onto him, licking his face as he fell backwards, the long grass tickling the back of his neck.

"I guess that's an answer."

He returned poliwhirl and removed the leather that covered up his Key Stone while manectric sat down about six feet away, as she usually did when they tried the Mega Evolution. One deep breath later, he started concentrating.

Fighting. He'd done it even before he had Pokémon of his own, trying to stop whatever Team Rocket plot was around. That had been scary, but he had trusted others to protect him; to make sure he could stay safe and help as much as he could. And then, once he actually had Pokémon of his own, he'd wanted to do the same. He wanted to make sure that those who tried to hurt Pokémon, or use Pokémon to hurt others, had no way of doing so. To protect not by just defending, but by making sure they couldn't carry out their plans. Disrupt them, like he'd do in a regular battle. Make sure that whatever the opponent had in mind, it wouldn't work, because he'd be one step ahead to stop it from happening.

And manectric… Manectric was great at that. She trusted him to keep an eye out, and he trusted her on the floor of the arena. Both of them worked together to put their opponents in a corner, to force reactions instead of actions. To avoid enemy plans, instead of mitigating their effects. To hinder, instead of wait and see. To fight, instead of protect. That was what they did.

And for the second time in his life, a bond surged into being. It felt exactly as it did the week before; prickly, soothing, static, _right._ He felt manectric's happiness at Mega Evolving once again, anticipating her move in for a relentless licking by simply laying back down to avoid being bowled over, and then he found himself buried in electric fur that both buzzed with power and yet did absolutely nothing to Max.

He didn't know how long they'd been lying there, but the sound of a camera shutter was just loud enough to make him react, which caused manectric to jump off; her full weight digging into his thighs for just a split second. "I guess you were right."

Danny didn't answer verbally, instead taking enough pictures for an entire album.

Max wanted to see all of them.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Night had long fallen on the Oak Laboratory when the resident Professor left the research area for his comfortable den, and all he really wanted was to just have half an hour to himself before heading to bed.

Whenever some Legendary went off on a rampage somewhere, news agencies from around the world thought _he_ was the foremost expert to consult. This time, it hadn't been as bad due to Kalos being basically the other side of the world, but considering Lance had been confirmed to be there, the Kanto authorities thought that the great Professor Samuel Oak knew more than he actually did. Every day, some bureaucratic paper-pusher somehow managed to miss his repeated mentions that he knew about as much as they did.

He made certain to never talk about what he could infer. The fact that two of the G-men operatives that he knew of – not counting Lance – had left for Kalos the weeks before yveltal's appearance suggested there was some foreknowledge going on; and he was reasonably certain that Lance would drop by at some point in the next few days to explain that.

Dragonite would like the company, no doubt.

The light peeking through the gap under the door and the vaguely audible unholy thumping music told him that his grandson had returned from Johto and wanted to talk to him before Teleporting off to Viridian and partying well into the night. Perhaps it was cliché to complain about the youth of today – Oak knew that his grandfather had been the same about him – but if there was a contest for poster boy of the youth of today, his grandson would make the shortlist for sure, ego and all.

Oak stopped a few feet away from the door, remembering a message he had been sent early that morning, and he turned around to print something.

He hesitated to call it arrogance, but his grandson was certainly close to that perilous border between confidence in oneself and arrogance. Years ago, the needle had strayed to the other side, but circumstances had forced some humility into the adolescent. It had largely stayed there, but deflating the boy's ego was somewhat of a habit of Oak's. There was no room for hubris in the sciences.

"Took you long enough, Gramps," Gary said as the Professor opened the door; a single raised eyebrow enough to prompt the soon-to-be-adult to remove his feet from the sofa and to switch the music to a rather more soothing piano concerto. "Thought I heard you before."

"Somehow, over that sound you call music," Oak said as he sat down in his favourite chair after dropping the envelope on the coffee table, next to a glass with some transparent drink. "There was something I had forgotten." He nodded down at the envelope. "You might be interested. Has to do with what you were looking for. Speaking of that," he continued as his grandson reached forward to pick the glass up, "did you find any?"

The teenager made a gesture with his free hand. "Not definitively, but there is something hidden in there. Every time I got close to something that looked promising, the unown started resonating. They are protecting some things, and I am content to let them be the guardians."

"After Greenfield, the Home Regions are aware of unown's collective power," Oak concurred. "Good work. I'll tell Bruno that passive surveillance should be enough. I don't believe Team Rocket is desperate enough to make an attempt."

"That's why you sent me there?" Gary asked incredulously. "I thought it was to find out if Mega Stones actually occur here as well."

Oak smiled at the minor indignation his grandson showed. "The two aren't mutually exclusive, and Bruno did only make the request after you'd already left last week. He was understandably worried after what happened in Kalos," he patiently explained. "You've still got something to open, by the way."

A few seconds later, Gary popped open the envelope with a finger, peeking inside. "What are these? Pictures?"

"Just a little something that came my way from Kalos early this morning."

Oak could pinpoint the exact moment his grandson realised these weren't just pictures of a random Mega manectric by the way his bored expression shifted to outright shock, before settling on frozen surprise as he sifted through the remaining few. "That can't be the manectric's Trainer," Gary exclaimed. "And why does he look familiar?"

"Because the boy's in a picture on Delia Ketchum's living room wall," Oak stated. "He's one of the companions Ash had in Hoenn, and apparently, he's managed to not only get his hands on a Mega Stone and a Key Stone, he's also made the connection work."

"One of Ash's companions? The kid's thirteen if a…" Gary trailed off suddenly, probably remembering something. "Oh, right. May's younger brother. The one who wasn't here for the Champion's League because he was in Kalos." He went back a few pictures, studying one closely. "Okay, I can kind of see the resemblance to May now. I think." He put the pictures back in their envelope – slightly surprising Oak, who had been expecting his grandson to just drop them on the table – and shook his head. "How in arceus's name did he do that?"

"Isn't that the million Pokédollar question," Oak mused, earning him a half-hearted glare. "The easy solution, of course, would be to ask him. Given what both Birch and Sycamore have told me, the boy would probably be happy to help."

"So you're going to Kalos?"

Oak shook his head. "Between putting the finishing touches on that shared paper of Elm's and myself, the upcoming national elections, and a new batch of starter Pokémon being dropped off, I don't think I have the time." He fixed his gaze on his grandson. "But most of all, I think it should be you who does it. Having the perspective of one who can utilise Mega Evolution himself is likely to produce better results, I think."

The brown-haired researcher thought it over. "I can see that. I was kind of planning to spend some time in the Orange Islands, though. Bit of a holiday for turning eighteen."

"Don't put a stop to that on my behalf," Oak said. "There's no real hurry. It's not like he's going to suddenly lose the ability to call on that Mega Evolution, and the Lumiose Conference is coming up in November. I didn't ask how many badges Max has, but he's been there since just after Yule. Odds are he'll be participating."

"You know how to sell it, Gramps," his grandson replied with a toast before draining what was left of whatever was in the glass. "Won't be as good as the Champion's League, but I'm sure it'll be entertaining and enlightening."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Kalos Police has now arrested over four hundred people in connection to the attempted Team Flare coup of last week Wednesday. Approximately seventy-five of those were direct combatants around the region, while the remaining number supported the organisation by giving money or goods or shelter. They have all been charged under various anti-treason laws, and initial trials will likely start early December.  
_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Checking up on some of the others, and Max figuring out how to Mega Evolve manectric properly, instead of during desperate times, and some of the ripples that event causes. **  
**


	32. Hidden Truth

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter** **32:** **Hidden Truth**

With a well-aimed Mirror Shot, Danny's magnemite knocked the duosion out; the strange green Pokémon slumping and the one Pokémon Light Screen dissipating as well. It had caused loudred a lot of trouble, and despite Danny's Pokémon probably having more power behind its attacks, the Psychic-type had been able to edge out a victory. It had been trained to use its two brains separately, leading to weaker, but simultaneous moves that Danny had had a lot of trouble dealing with. It was similar to how metang and metagross worked, though not dugtrio and magnemite.

The man opposite – Unovan, judging by the over the top hat – considered the magnemite for a few seconds before sending out a litwick. A decent choice, and the white Ghost-type Pokémon looked ready to battle.

A few moments later, it became clear that the little candle was well-trained as a Fire-type, the candle on its head flaring up, forming a swirling ball of purple-blue energy that absorbed the weak jolt of electricity without issue. A cry of concentration, and the attack spiralled forward at magnemite.

Very much not as impressive as the one that he'd seen underneath Café Lysandre, but it didn't stop Max from shivering every so slightly. The eerie energy that chandelure and lampent infused into their fire had that effect for some reason. He'd seen a quilava use Inferno against him the day before – the flame more reddish-purple – but that just didn't have the same effect.

Magnemite dove down, using its ability to move in three dimensions to avoid the fire and launch a quick Thunder Shock.

And then the Inferno hit it from behind, simultaneously with the electricity connecting with its opponent.

It was a glancing hit, but Max saw Danny scowl. He – and Max as well, to be honest – hadn't counted on the litwick being good at pyrokinesis. Magnemite had got away okay enough, but even from the limited exposure, one of its magnets was glowing red-hot.

Danny ordered his Pokémon to start moving, and watch out for more fire, and the litwick didn't disappoint, unleashing a spray of Embers that forced out a Protect before trying a Hex that nearly connected on the overheated magnet. Magnemite doing a crazy roll was the only thing that saved him from it, and with an opening now created, Supersonic was sent right at the Ghost, hitting, and causing the flame on top of its head to flicker strangely.

Did that mean the flame was controlled consciously, instead of unconsciously like the charmander family?

A wild jet of fire missed magnemite by a few feet as the confusion set in, while Danny's Pokémon launched a Mirror Shot that… passed inches in front of the stationary Pokémon? "What the..."

"How did magnemite miss that?" Serena wondered from behind him, and Max took a step to the side out of habit of making room – not that it was needed with all of five people watching. "How'd your last match go?"

Magnemite pushed a Thunder Wave out, but it met a Hex – the attacks dissipating on each other's energy. "Won, so I'm four and three." It had been most welcome after losing three times in a row earlier that day. Then again, he'd won three times yesterday. "You?"

"Lost. Two and five. Still won more than you did today."

Max didn't need to look at Serena to imagine the smirk on her face. Instead, he focused on the litwick, which had jumped up to avoid another Mirror Shot. It impacted about two inches in front of where litwick had been standing, and he suddenly understood what magnemite was trying to do. "They're not misses. Danny wants magnemite to use litwick's low weight against it."

And at that moment, magnemite abandoned that strategy, instead going for something Max had seen many times. An Electric-type peppering its opponent with a lot of quick-fire electrical attacks was hard to deal with if you didn't have all that much mobility and were confused, and the Ghost-type was hit four times inside half a minute without retaliation. It looked winded just from that, and magnemite flew low to the ground with a Mirror Shot to deliver the final blow.

Then litwick flashed red, as did magnemite, and all of a sudden, the Steel-type attack faltered while litwick cried happily, looking a _lot_ better. "What happened?"

Max immediately took his Pokédex, aiming it at litwick and tapping over to the move list they were confirmed to be able to learn. It was a fairly long scroll down – the only thing that really stood out from skimming being that they were likely to learn Overheat – but eventually, he found something that made perfect sense. "Pain Split. It's like..." he read the description. "If you use it on me while your knee is hurting, I get some of that pain, and it's also less for you."

"Nasty," Serena said, and Max could only agree with that. "So all that attacking magnemite did was for nothing?"

"Not completely. It's a split, not a transfer." A Flame Burst shot across the field, missing magnemite and scorching the ground behind the grey Pokémon. "It's an equaliser. Good for coming back."

He saw Serena nod, and they watched the rest of the match in silence. It ended up as a draw when a Thunder Shock and Inferno crossed each other, knocking both out simultaneously. Litwick had landed maybe four attacks the entire match, but they had all done a lot of work: it was a lot of power in such a small Pokémon.

"Four wins, two losses, one draw," Danny said as the oldest of them walked over to the others. He looked up, checking something in the air. "Don't think I have a prize, so… Let's go to the Center?"

"I still don't understand the format," Max said when they walked through the wrought-iron gate that served as the park's entrance. "It's one big group of everyone, and you go up against people with similar scores? What's wrong with good old knock-out?"

"Took ages too," Danny added, Serena nodding in agreement. "They really need more than six arenas if the tournament is this big. What was it? Over a hundred people?"

"Something like that." Max didn't recall the exact number, but he knew that much. "At least I won something today. Those three losses sucked." And at least two had been winnable, probably. "Maybe I should have gone all-out."

"Your score was better than mine. Like, I mean the Pokémon score," Danny said. "I never won with both Pokémon left and both losses were without me knocking the opponent's Pokémon out. You did the opposite."

Max realised Danny was right – somehow, despite ending lower in the results, he had knocked more Pokémon out. "This format really gives me a headache."

"Hear hear."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Two days and a cold front later, a cold trio of teenagers entered Snowbelle City. They'd tried to dress for the sudden chill accompanying the misty weather, but even two layers of shirts weren't enough for Max to feel warm. From the looks of it, neither Serena nor Danny were all that warm either.

Thankfully, the Snowbelle Pokémon Center was located close to the end of the Route they'd followed for the last day, and the blast of hot air as they entered was almost blistering on their skin. "Warmth. Glorious warmth!" Serena exclaimed, shedding her coat in a motion that was supposed to be fluid, but ended up nearly hitting Danny in the face with a trailing sleeve. "Sorry!"

"Leave the theatrics for the Master Class," Danny replied, but there was no heat behind his words. Considering it had been his Dad who had used a similar phrase in a phone call a day and a half ago – the morning after the tournament had ended – he was probably used to it anyway. Minus the accidental near-hit to the face.

That call had been awkward, to say the least, but mostly for Max. It had been the first one involving his own Dad since he'd been forced to confess about lying to his parents, and things had been… frosty. They wanted answers, but Max wasn't about to discuss everything over a call. It'd take way too long – telling Danny about them had taken up an hour per event, pretty much, and while it had been faster for Serena, that was also because the girl hadn't asked as many questions back then.

And, if he had to be honest, he wanted to put it off. He didn't know what his parents were going to do, or how they were going to react to everything. They had gone into danger more than a few times, and when Legendaries were involved, danger was of the potentially fatal kind.

He was _not_ looking forward to explaining the Tree of Life. At all. Or what had happened two weeks ago.

"Max?"

He looked up, seeing Danny give him a strange look. Serena was nowhere near, but he spotted her at the desk, taking care of rooms to stay in for the next week or so. "Just thinking."

"It'll be okay," Danny said, but Max saw through Danny's optimism. The older teen had doubts himself about what was going to happen. "And it's nearly two months off. Enough time for everyone to cool down."

"And enough time for all the information about Geosenge to leak out," Max replied softly, thinking about the press conference they'd listened to on the way here. Apparently, someone had found out that the ones fighting – that being Max, Danny, Serena, Keith, Jane – looked like teenagers, and in between a few pointed replies about how everyone needed to step up and help instead of cowering, Diantha had confirmed that it had been, well, teenagers helping.

"Least they can't identify us without permission. Kalos has some really strange laws, but I like this one," Danny whispered back as Serena returned. "You look annoyed."

"Nurse Joy doesn't think it's proper for us to share a room," Serena said vehemently, shooting an angry glare back at the now-empty desk. "So now I have to share with a complete stranger."

Danny sighed deeply, shaking his head. "Trust twelve-year-olds with Pokémon, don't trust them with the other gender," he muttered. "Doesn't matter if they travelled together for months already." Another deep sigh. "Right. Let's go find out where our rooms are and who you're with. Hopefully, it won't be too bad."

Half an hour later, as they walked out into town to stock up on supplies, Max had to admit that it could have been worse for Serena. The other girl – Kalosian, about half a year older than Danny was – had been understanding of the situation, rolling her eyes when they told her about what Nurse Joy had said before ranting about old-fashioned attitudes and sheepishly stopping herself.

It had broken the ice, if nothing else.

The Gym was as central as could be, but closed for the day because Wulfric was never there on Tuesdays. A bit of asking around revealed that the Gym Leader always went into the Winding Woods to the south. That, in turn, led to asking what the Winding Woods were. The Kalos Trainer's Guide hadn't been too detailed, from what Danny quickly shared.

In short, it was a mysterious place. It was one of the densest forests of Kalos, and people kept getting lost, but only to the point that they couldn't move further into the forest. For some strange reason, the moment explorers decided to turn around, they found themselves at the place they entered within minutes of doing so, no matter if they'd been walking for hours or minutes before deciding to return. "A forest with leaves that should fall off in autumn," Danny started summarising as they walked up to the Poké Mart. "Deciduous? Max?"

"I think so."

"Right. Leaves that should fall off, but don't. People getting lost, but not really. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"If it is a powerful Pokémon confusing everyone," Serena caught on immediately, "then we shouldn't go in."

"True," Danny conceded as they entered the building. "Had enough of that on Mt. Pyre. I'm not going to go anywhere near that if I can help it. Just too spooky."

Max ducked into the nearest aisle – Pokémon food – to hide. He'd deal with their comments after coming back from trying it out tomorrow.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The one thing that struck Max after about five minutes of walking in the Winding Woods was that it felt strange. It made his skin crawl, and there was _something_ just outside of his hearing or sight; like how everyone always talked about haunted houses being creepy because there was something watching you. Max very much had that idea.

But weirdly, he didn't feel like it was a malevolent entity.

As he walked through the forest, stepping over intermingled roots and branches and holes in the ground, he started to realise that there was no sound whatsoever. There was no rustling of the wind, no Pokémon chirping a tune, no sound of someone else walking in these woods – and he had seen someone enter not even two minutes ahead of him. The only sounds he heard were those he made himself; his breathing, his shoes pressing into soil or wood; the rustle of his clothes; the soft scrape of his leather wristband against his coat sleeve.

It reminded him of xatu's sound-blocking barrier, but not fully. This was far more powerful and far less obvious to casual observers. Max doubted he would have noticed if it hadn't been for his previous experience, but since he knew what it felt like, it was actually obvious that the two were related.

It also made him wonder if it was just one Pokémon guarding the forest or an entire group. If it was one Pokémon, he was certain it had to be a Legendary Psychic-type – no other type or rarity made sense. They were some of the more elusive Legendaries to see – latios and latias could vanish from view, jirachi and deoxys were linked to extraterrestrial events… The Sinnoh Lake Trio was native to Sinnoh only as far as everyone knew…

Then again, if he remembered correctly, at least one of those had the ability to make illusions. Max was uncertain if it was azelf or uxie. Both kind of fit with the theme.

If the entire forest was part of an illusion, it was a damn-well impressive one, he mused as he sat down against one of the largest trees he'd seen so far; the trunk vanishing into layers upon layers of branches and leaves. Then, he suddenly chuckled.

The idea and vision of him actually sitting against nothing in some empty field somewhere was a strange one, but amusing too.

He rolled up his right sleeve, revealing his wristband and soon after, his Key Stone. The spotted pink pattern appeared to move whenever Max moved his wrist, and not for the first time in the last two weeks, he felt both amazed and blessed that he actually had one, let alone actually Mega Evolving without any practice beforehand. That had been nothing short of a miracle, if Max had read between the lines correctly.

If either Professor Sycamore or Professor Birch had theories on why he'd been able to regardless, they hadn't shared them with him. All they had told him – emphatically – was that he should probably keep it as much of a secret as possible for now. The Kalos Professor had hinted that it wouldn't be for too long for some reason, but it had been at the back of his mind in the tournament in Comte Town over the weekend.

He wasn't sure he should use it against Wulfric, either. It was just… Mega manectric was powerful, handily dispatching Danny's dusclops and froslass, before nearly getting the best of loudred as well. It would be very doable for Max to get in a situation where he could use manectric to just blow Wulfric's last Pokémon out of the water, or ice. Just feign a normal team, probably with a combination of vulpix, doublade, clefairy, and maybe xatu, and then just switch to the more powerful Pokémon. Wulfric probably wouldn't be expecting it, and he'd get an easy eighth badge.

Wait. Why the hell was he thinking that? He wasn't about easy battles. He wanted good battles at his level, because that was the best way of improving yourself as a Trainer. Easy wins taught you nothing at all, except the price of overconfidence.

Suddenly, something vanished from his mind, and Max shuddered violently, jumping up. Something had been in his mind, guiding his thoughts and emotions, and he hadn't even noticed consciously. Even when the ninetales had forced him to speak the truth a year back, he'd noticed as he said those words.

He sent out doublade as he scanned the area, but still, there was nothing to hear but the sounds he, or the Pokémon, made. There was nothing in sight either, everything blocked by trees upon trees upon.

The air in front of Max's face shimmered and flickered, and something definitely vanished from there the moment he realised that something was two feet away from his head, recoiling belatedly. "Okay," he said softly after he'd recovered. "Maybe there is something spooky here. Probably better if I go back."

He turned around after covering the Key Stone up, walking back the way he thought he came as doublade hovered nearby, but the five minutes everyone talked about needing to return turned into ten minutes of wandering around the same area over and over. Despite going as straight as he could, he noticed the same tree cluster three times. "This is getting me nowhere… Doublade, you're not detecting anything strange?"

The pair of swords shook negatively, though one of them did leave its sheath, pointing to Max's left.

He went in that direction, but even after half a minute, he was unsure it was the right way. The forest was getting darker, denser, more eerie, though it didn't feel more dangerous than before. Different, yes, but not dangerous.

A branch snapping made him jump, both boy and Pokémon spinning to face the direction of the sound, but nothing was visible; trees blocking sight.

When they turned back, there was an opening that had not been there seconds before A leafy arch stood where once nothing had, but all sight through it was blocked. "Do we go in?"

"Blade."

"If you say so."

And in he walked.

 **~~§~~§~~**

With sweat everywhere in her clothes thanks to braixen using a lot of fire, Serena re-entered the Pokémon Center after an hour's worth of practice for the Master Class Performance. Dancing while also moving in a pattern was hard enough, but when you couldn't make mistakes because braixen was laying down a trail of fire while dancing, it turned into something very precise that made Serena glad she'd asked Danny for a loan of his swampert.

At least she'd come off without burns this time. She still had raw skin from last week's practice on her shin.

She found Danny in the room he shared with Max, who was still absent. "Here you go," Serena said as she threw the pokéball at the lazy boy on the top of the bunk bed. He half-caught it, having to tip it up into the air to properly catch it. Still impressive. "No burns or anything. Am going to need a shower, but I think we've got this down."

Danny climbed down from the bed, jumping the last few rungs of the ladder. "So that's the dance, and you said something about doing something with a catwalk… Is that everything?" He shrugged, smiling at Serena. "I don't know how this Master Class goes, remember."

"There are three rounds before the final," Serena started, sitting down at the desk. There was an unfinished letter there, but she put it upside down before she could read it. It was Max's correspondence, not hers. "All of them are Freestyle Performances against two others. I'm going to use the dance in the first round, and then there's a routine about training zorua on a catwalk in the second round."

"Oh, right," Danny interrupted her. "The thing about zorua imitating whatever cherrim did, right?"

"Exactly." She spotted a pitcher filled with water, and poured herself a glass, immediately draining half of it. "That's on Saturday."

"And Sunday?"

Serena rolled her eyes at Danny. "I'm never going to get there."

Danny rolled his eyes right back at her. "Indulge me." When she didn't reply, he sighed. "You don't have anything worked out well enough?"

It hurt to admit it. "No," Serena said softly, eyes on her remaining water. "I've got ideas… I want to use the _other_ side of altaria's singing, have something that isn't always happy and joyous. I mean, if I'm that far, might as well try something, right?"

"And what's the setting?"

"A… A funeral?" That had been the only thing that had come to mind, morbidly. That, or someone dying, but a funeral was easier to set up. Less props and all that.

Danny bursting out in hysterical laughter made Serena want to sink into the ground, Even he thought it was a stupid idea, and Danny had been nothing but supportive all the time. Stupid brain of thinking about it. "Do it."

What?! "Did you just..."

"It's a great idea!" Danny said, all fired up now. "Just think about it. Nearly all of the Performances are happy and joyful and stuff. I think we've only seen like two that weren't, and one of them was that kirlia one in Cyllage. It's a big risk, but if you get to that round..." Danny spread his hands, making the universal sign for 'who cares'. "Besides, acting is all about going out of your comfort zone, and you've always said Performances and acting were similar. Why not try that? You don't have anything to lose, right?"

"Not at that point, no," Serena agreed, feeling better than she'd had all week. With just that one explanation, Danny had completely changed her way of thinking, and once again, she wondered just how he did that. "I owe you and your Dad one."

"Friends help friends," Danny stated in reply. "But if you want to thank me, I'm partial to cookies with extra vanilla nowadays."

Serena grinned as she picked up the glass of water. "Hollow legs, you and Max both. Speaking of," she added, bringing the glass up. "Where is Max?"

She'd just finished her sip when Danny answered. "Oh, the Winding Woods," he said nonchalantly, before being sprayed with a spit-take of water. "Hey!"

"The same Winding Woods that are haunted or something? Why would he go there?!"

Danny turned his back to her, grabbing something from his pack. "You think he cares after whatever he's seen and done?" He found what he was looking for, and flung it onto Max's bed. It was a clean shirt. "Place like that? Guaranteed solitude and a mystery? Heck yeah he's going there."

Off the shirt went, and Serena turned away from her friend, successfully avoiding a blush. "I thought you said he didn't want to go up Mt. Pyre last year."

"Different story. That was because of ralts. No such barrier here."

Serena had to agree with that.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Once they had passed through the arch, the dead sound around them changed. Max was unsure how, but for some strange reason, everything up ahead felt… open, while something like a hard barrier was behind him. He turned to the arch, trying to notice if there was anything like what xatu always summoned when he made sound barriers, but nothing was visible. After about a minute's worth of futile study, he turned back around and resumed his walking. He trod slowly, careful to avoid breaking any of the branches lying on the ground, and his hearing focused on trying to detect anyone or anything else.

When he next looked up, maybe a minute later, the area was a lot lighter than it had been all forest. There was still no real daylight peeking through the trees, but being able to see more than fifteen feet ahead was a welcome change.

"Ah. So you are the one who passed into the sanctum," came a slow, slightly hoarse, voice. "I come in peace, doublade. If you do no harm, neither shall I."

The speaker, Max saw, was a man maybe a few years older than Ash. He had unkempt hair down to the small of his back, pale green with specks of brown – twigs. Despite that, his face was clean-shaven, and blue eyes were fixed wholly on Max, and not on the doublade hovering above him. "Sanctum?"

"A sanctum for and of Pokémon. For those who have loved and lost; for those who seek refuge; for those who were merely born within its domain," the man waxed poetically, lyrically, speaking in oddly reverent tones in an annoyingly familiar accent that Max couldn't place. "For now, I am one of its keepers."

Doublade floated down to just below shoulder height, and Max circled his thumb around one of the pommels in a motion he knew the Ghost liked. "A secret refuge for Pokémon, he muttered. "That's why most explorers in here get lost? Some Pokémon is doing tricks on their mind?"

The green-haired man looked equally surprised and impressed with him. "Good observation. How did you come to that conclusion?"

"I'm fairly sure one of them tried to do the same thing on me earlier. Not to throw me out, but… Different," Max finished lamely, unsure if he wanted to tell a complete stranger – even one as amiable – about the details. "Made me think things that weren't me."

"You are a strange boy to know your own mind so well," the man said, his voice faint with wonder. "And stranger still to recognise tampering like that. How old are you?"

"Thirteen and a half."

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. "Do _not_ lie to me. I can feel your connections to your Pokémon, and never in all my travels have I felt bonds that strong in Trainers so young." Blue eyes shifted sideways, towards doublade. "Doublade, answer the question for him."

Doublade did, and in response to that, the man sank to his knees as if he could not believe what he had heard. "What is it?"

He didn't reply to Max's sharp tone. "How… I can feel the bonds, and one of them… It should not be possible." He looked up, straight at doublade. "What kind of Pokémon?" he asked, doublade answering hesitantly. "You. Max. Show me your manectric."

Max tensed, and he took a few steps back. "How do you know my name? And that I have a manectric."

"Have. As if you own her," the man scoffed. "She travels with you and has found happiness in it, but you only have as much power over her as she lets you have. Send her out. Now."

As he made his demands, the forest shifted around them, turning oppressive, trees that had once been far away now looming over them, whispering, promising blood and agony if some unsaid condition wasn't met.

Max gave in, seething at himself for being cowed so easily. For jirachi's sake, he'd fought Legendaries. "Here. Happy now?"

"It's acceptable," the man drawled, kneeling by a confused manectric, studying the collar she was wearing. "How is this possible?" Max heard him mutter. "It's supposed to be… You haven't been here?" Manectric barked in the negative, bristling when hands were brought to the collar. "It doesn't make any… Maybe… Where did you find this?"

"What's it to you?" Max shot back as manectric walked back to him, and he put a hand in her fur to soothe the both of them.

"Right now, in a shrine I saw fifteen minutes ago, there is an identical Mega Stone. Completely identical as far as I can tell," the man said. "It's one of the treasures of the sanctum, one of the reasons why most humans are never given access to this place. So. How did a boy from Hoenn – I think – get that."

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Max shot back, feeling vindicated in his opposition to someone who had been nothing but rude and demanding for the past few minutes. "After all, you don't even trust me to tell the truth. Why would you believe anything I say?"

To his surprise, a chuckle escaped the man's throat. It sounded unwilling, but it was hardly unwelcome. "A point to you. You do have no reason to trust me, but what to do..." he mused, the question sounding vaguely rhetorical to Max's ears. "How about we each answer some questions. If we're truthful with each other, we can get to know each other better."

"And how do you propose neither of us lies?"

"You'll see. Come, Max, and leave manectric with us. Your bond is strong, and it should not be stifled by a pokéball. Not in this place."

It was maybe a ten minute walk, and they were some of the stranger ten minutes Max had ever lived through. The green-haired man completely ignored him, instead striking up conversation with manectric as she walked besides Max, asking various questions that manectric answered. Max had a good idea of the _direction_ his Electric-type was answering in, like positive or evasive, but somehow, the adult in front of them managed to construct complete answers from even monosyllabic replies.

Definitely one of the questions he was going to ask.

After ten minutes, they reached what looked to be a place of worship. There was a stone pillar about fifteen feet high and about six feet wide, with four alcoves visible on the side he was facing. Off to the side, Max saw a tent, and what looked to be a fire pit. "Wait here."

Max waited, seeing the man go up to the pillar first, and then into the tent, returning with a Mega Stone in one hand, and a case he'd seen in use to transport stuff like Fossils in the other. "So. What are the rules for this truth-telling game of yours?" Max asked as manectric had enough of sitting around, instead lying down at his feet.

The man opened the case before answering, revealing a round and very nondescript stone just by looks. Something about it was tickling at Max's senses, though. "We each place one hand on this. We answer only questions the other asks. Each of us can dodge one question, and we each answer four questions in total. Acceptable?"

Max didn't see what swearing on a stone would do, but if he'd learned anything, it was that there was more to the world than met the eye. "Acceptable. Would you like to start?"

"You ask that only because you suspect which question I am going to ask you," the man replied genially, smirking at Max. "But I'll accept your offer." They moved to the stone, placing their hands on it. Max didn't feel anything different from a normal stone. "What experience have you got with using Mega Evolution?"

Now he understood the smirk. Damn that man. "I tried it once in May, but the trigger wasn't right. Then I found a Key Stone two weeks back, and manectric Mega Evolved to protect me. I've done it three times since then." He took a moment to think about his question. "How did you know what my name was?"

"I can hear the inner voice of Pokémon. Or maybe I've convinced myself I am able to." The man shrugged as best he could while pressing a hand to the stone. "Through it, I can hear what they think and communicate with them far better than any Trainer could."

"Like telepathy?" Max blurted out, before clasping his free hand over his mouth. "Shit."

A hearty chuckle, a willing one this time, followed. "I won't count that. It's like telepathy, I think, but I've never had a Pokémon use it on me. It's not needed when I can just understand them this way. What was the danger manectric Mega Evolved to defend you from?"

He had his answer ready for that within an instant. "Pass."

All he got was a raised eyebrow. "If you came across a Trainer who was mistreating their Pokémon by your standards, what would you do?"

Ethics questions? What? "I'd… I'd try to stop them," he said slowly. "Either get the police involved, or do it myself. If it's poachers," he added, feeling more certain of himself, "I'm going to try and stop them. I've done it before."

"Interesting. Your second question?"

"Can you sense bonds with Pokémon the same way you can understand them?"

"That's… not something I've thought about in those terms before," the man admitted before falling silent for about ten seconds. "The two might be related, but… I don't think they flow from each other. I know of several people who seek to judge and rate the bonds between Pokémon and humans." He cocked his head, looking at Max different from what he had done before. "I sense twelve Pokémon have joined you on your journey, but I sense a thirteenth bond, stronger than all except the one with manectric. What happened to that Pokémon?"

Well, _fuck._ He had promised to answer four questions, and he had already used his one pass, and those two factors warred with his desire to not want to tell a complete and utter stranger about some of the worst moments of his life so far. "Everything I say stays here?" he asked eventually.

"Look down," the man commanded, and Max obeyed, seeing a surprisingly clean adult hand on the stone. He also saw manectric sneeze from the edge of his vision, her fur scraping against denim. "I promise you that I will not tell anyone. Whatever is said here, stays here. Answer with a short answer if you want to."

What was his plan? Max knew when he was outmatched in intelligence – as he was right now – but for someone so smart, the man was giving him an awful lot of leeway. "It belonged to a ralts. I met him when I couldn't yet train Pokémon, and I promised to come back for him. When I did, he had been poached. When I found him again, he had evolved, but he died in my arms." Around his shin, manectric gave off a soothing spark, while the man looked at him impassively, face blank. "How did you come to live here in the sanctum?"

"I've been here for a few weeks. I've been travelling around Kalos for a few months, and this place called to me from miles away," was the easily-given answer. "For someone like me, this is a bit like heaven on earth, as you might imagine." They shared a smile at that – Max very well could, given what he'd heard before. "My last question, and again, you are allowed to give a short answer if you want to… What is your biggest regret in life?"

"Breaking my promise to ralts." If the answer was a surprise to the other, it didn't show. "What is yours?"

Silence stretched for long enough that Max expected a pass, but eventually, the man shook his head. "That I was blind to the motivations of people around me. They used me as a symbol, and hurt far too many Pokémon through it, for far too long." He demonstratively took his hand off the stone, and Max did the same. "Thank you for telling the truth."

"But how did you know I told the truth?" Max wondered. "I could've just made it all up."

A smirk formed. "Place your hand on the stone again, and try a completely innocent lie. You'll see."

Max studied the innocent-looking stone once more, but he got nothing from it. He took a moment to think of a suitably simple lie before placing his hand on the stone. "I have red hai – what the hell?"

The moment he'd started to say 'hair', the stone heated up under his fingers. It wasn't uncomfortable, more like the temperature of a good shower, but that still was a lot warmer than the stone naturally was. "Now you see. This is the Light Stone. It is linked to a Legendary Pokémon that values Truth above everything, and it cannot abide lies. Even an innocent one like that makes it react. The bigger the lie..."

The Light Stone… Where had Max heard that before? "Okay, now I'm glad I didn't try to lie." He turned his gaze on the other hand that hadn't ever touched the Light Stone. "And what's with the Mega Stone?"

"See for yourself."

He handed Max the Mega Stone, and immediately, Max saw what the man had talked about earlier. The chip in the stone – the one thing that made it his Manectite – looked identical to the one in manectric's collar. "What the hell? It… It can't be."

"But it is," said the man from above him as he tried to see if there were any differences whatsoever. He brought the loose stone closer to the collared one. "Oh, Max? One more thing. Keep quiet."

"Whaaaaaa?" Max said as the world flickered and blurred, a harsh tug behind his lungs dragging him along as something hit him in the back, and he fell to the ground hard, feeling his knees hit something solid. At the top of his vision, he saw something blurry, like a bubble. "What just..."

And he fell silent, because when he looked up, he saw a still scene of a place he had just been. The man, looking straight at _him_ with unseeing eyes, while a boy wearing jeans and a dark blue coat stood in between them; a manectric by his feet. Both of them had a hand out, touching the Light Stone.

That was as far as he got before an angry screech greeted him. "Bi-bi! Ce-le-bi!" The Pokémon of time travel prodded angrily at the hand carrying the Manectite. "Ce-le!"

And for all the loud screeching, the two in front of him didn't move. In fact, nothing moved, despite him knowing that there had been at least some wind. Had celebi stopped time? "I can't understand you like he does," Max said slowly to the angry green Pokémon. "But just nod or something if I'm right. Is this Manectite the same as the one in manectric's collar? Is that why you didn't want me to bring them together?"

"Bi," the celebi told him with folded arms. Max translated it as something petulant and self-righteous. "Bi?" it asked next, miming zipping its mouth.

Max nodded, and with another flicker, time resumed, the bubble popped. The green-haired man instantly noticed him, directing his… the Max of ten minutes ago to look down at the stone. Manectric raised her head, looking between both Maxes before sneezing – another thing Max remembered from earlier.

His own voice sounded _really_ weird from the outside, but it was lower than it had been a year ago, he was sure of it.

He waited patiently for things to unfold as they had before, and when he saw a second celebi rush forward slowly, coinciding with his earlier self kneeling, he knew what was going to happen before it happened. The other celebi hastily flew into the other Max's back, and they vanished in a flicker of temporal energy. "Okay. Time travel," he said, finally allowed to speak again. Manectric ran up to him, barking happily, though Max kept the Mega Stone away from her. "I'm guessing it – do celebi even _have_ gender? - is one of the guardians of the forest?"

The man nodded, looking impressed. "Correct. And to answer your question, celebi doesn't care about gender. It _is_." He nodded to the Pokémon floating by Max's head. "And I think that I would like to know the truth about how you found it now."

"I found it just lying around," Max replied. "About half a year ago, in the mountains near Shalour, in some dead-end pathway. I saw..." He trailed off as he realised something, and he turned to the green Pokémon. " _You._ You brought it here. You were the flicker that I've been seeing every so often?"

"I think it might have been. Or will be, for celebi," the man observed. "I think you've got some work to do, celebi."

In a flash, the Manectite was torn from Max's hand as celebi vanished, presumably going back in time to place it there. But… "There was a note too. Just one note with eight numbers."

"Can you show me?"

"No, I..." Max said, only to feel something in his pocket. "What the hell?" he said as he fished the exact note he had been talking about from his pocket. "I didn't… Wait, I did…" he said as two different sets of memories warred in his mind. One set was of him taking the note from its place in the depths of Max's pack for some reason he hadn't understood, and in the other set, he had just left the room. "Time travel..."

"Perhaps it's better to not think about it." Max could definitely get behind that idea. "Can I see the note?" he asked, accepting it a moment later. "Yes, that is my handwriting. I don't understand these numbers, though."

"Neither did we. That is… My friends and I," Max admitted. We tried coordinates, dates, codes..."

"Dates, you say…" the man seemed lost in thought. "You said manectric Mega Evolved for the first time two weeks ago? On the eleventh of September?" Max nodded, uncertain where this was headed. "Do you know what time?"

Max thought for a few seconds. "Around half past two? Maybe closer to a quarter to three?" Yveltal's first sighting had been reported as a quarter to three, and he didn't know how long it had taken people to spot the Legendary.

"That explains it," the man said as he pressed the note back into Max's hand before taking out a notepad of the same kind of paper. "It was twenty to three on the eleventh of September." He took a pen from another pocket. "Or, as we write it where I'm from… _0911 1440."_ He scribbled something onto the notepad, and Max looked at numbers he had seen many times before, before he tore it off, the note vanishing from his hands. "Yes. This is how it should be. Two mysteries solved for you."

Max shook his head, still struggling to understand. "Man, truth really is stranger than fiction. Wait till..." He realised something. "Should I tell my friends of this?"

"If you trust them, you may." Manectric let out a soft woof. "She thinks it's a good idea to wait until after you've battled Wulfric and left Snowbelle. She also seems to think you're in some kind of trouble."

"Well… I didn't tell them I went here, but I couldn't resist."

The man laughed at Max's sheepish look. "Don't be ashamed for exploring. If I had done the same, perhaps..." He sighed. "You never asked me my name." One hand motioned downwards, and Max saw the other being placed on the Light Stone. "My name is Natural Harmonia Gropius, or N for short."

Max gasped as he realised exactly _who_ he had been talking to. "You… You were the puppet King?"

"That is the title I was given in the media," N confirmed. "And my realisation of that was the reason I fled, some time before the man who called himself my _father_ ," he added, the venom suddenly thick and sharp, "was stopped for good. I embarked on a journey across the world, heading to Prudan first, and then coming here to Kalos, in search of the Truth reshiram desires. And in that time, I have learned that many of the things I was told are outright false."

"Like the one about Pokémon needing to be set free?"

"For one," N said, bowing his head at manectric. "I still think that many humans should _not_ treat Pokémon as they do, but through talking with others, I learned… I learned that even those who fight with Pokémon – like you do – can do so without it being a cruel way of entertaining people at the cost of Pokémon welfare. And… And that some Trainers use their Pokémon to stand up to those who… To those like my former underlings," he corrected himself. "And to those who sought to unleash Death on this world."

Max shot manectric a half-betrayed look. "If manectric told you all of that earlier, why the whole Light Stone questioning?"

"Because I have also learned that pokéballs carry certain inhibitors," N replied, sounding annoyed. "Truth is Truth, but if you've never known anything else, even a flimsy lie can be the truth. As I found out," he added sourly. "I apologise for dredging up bad memories, but when manectric told me of what had happened, I had to know. I don't know a lot about what is normal, but I gather most boys your age don't exactly..."

"Do what I did?" Max finished. "Yeah, it's kinda crazy, and not always in the good way." He looked down at manectric, seeing the Mega Stone glint. "Even if the results are great."

"Great for you," N said darkly, before shaking his head. "No. I shouldn't be like that. Not everyone treats Truth as I do, and you are a subject of the other dragon of the prime; of Ideals." Somehow, despite keeping his voice carefully neutral, the Unovan managed to infuse the last word with venom. "Go now, and forge the world _you_ want to see. Strive for excellence, put your Ideals to the test."

N made to turn around. "Wait!" Max said, and the green-haired man looked at him, curious. "I just… Just thanks," he finished lamely.

"For what?"

"For allowing me to get to know you too," Max said in a rush. "You didn't need to answer all those questions like you did."

"If I did that, I would be a poor disciple of Truth. Farewell, Max."

"Farewell, N," Max replied as the former King turned around fully, walking back. He did the same, going in the direction of the exit. He'd nearly reached it – he thought – when celebi suddenly dropped into his view again. "Hello celebiiiii!"

For the second time, Max was tugged along on a trip through time, and when he landed, something snapped underneath; a branch that dug into his butt, and manectric had landed on top of him in a strange position that left her kind of unable to move without putting her feet in Max's face. He quickly returned her for his own sake and stood up.

Just in time to see himself pass into the hidden area. "Bloody time-travel."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Situated south of Snowbelle City, the Winding Woods are a strange anomaly in Kalosian forests, with many myths attached to it. Though aerial pictures show that it covers an area roughly ten by seventeen miles, these numbers do not seem to apply inside the forest itself. Satellite-based location services fail to work inside the forest, and people often find themselves turned around. Lastly, the woods are home to very few Pokémon, and those that are found there are skilled in stealth. Not a good place for aspiring Champions to visit, except on a dare from friends, in other words._

From: Trainer's Guide to Kalos

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And that is one of the older scenes of the story completed. For some reason - probably a Doctor Who marathon - I decided very early on to deliver the Manectite to Max via time travel, back in Chapter 9. N was also already slated to make an appearance back then. I had envisioned something relatively simple, to end this chapter with the eighth Gym Battle, or at least half of it, but then the scene inside the sanctum grew way larger than I had expected it to on the back of the rocky start Max and N had, plus time travel shenanigans.

And yes, that last scene ends about at the same time as it starts.


	33. Unleashed Power

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

 **Author's Note:** This should have been up last week, but FFN refused to accept new documents the entire weekend.

* * *

 **Chapter** **33:** **Unleashed Power**

Max was pretty happy he had been forewarned about the temperatures in the Gym being below freezing, because even with a coat, it was just slightly uncomfortable. Especially when he'd just been watching from the stands – it was easier to ignore the cold when you were focused on battling. He'd even seen Danny shed his scarf partway during the battle, for reasons Max didn't even want to know.

It had been back around his friend's neck a few moments ago, when they crossed paths in the tunnels from the stands to the arena. They'd shared a quick high five, because Danny had won his badge in a very hard-fought tie, but then they'd moved on. There was a battle to fight.

Wulfric was waiting at the end of the tunnel, leaning against the wooden door. For some crazy reason, the large Gym Leader was still not wearing his coat, instead using it as a cape; something that became more apparent as he took a step towards his challenger. "Max Maple, also from Petalburg in Hoenn. Your friend was resilient, like the Steel-type, and I wonder what you are. But that is for the battle to unveil. I would just like to tell you that you can use your full strength in here if you so choose."

Max froze at the last words. "How… How do you know?"

"A mutual acquaintance told me. One you met, oh… Five days back," Wulfric replied, and Max made the connection to the Winding Woods encounter. "If you choose to use Mega Evolution, I will respond in kind. If you do not, neither will I. The choice is yours."

Max wasn't certain yet, but he leant towards doing so. There was a reason he had taken the collar with him regardless, hidden away in his coat as it was. "Thank you for telling me. I… I hadn't been sure how to use it."

"Oho, someone who thinks _tactically_ , instead of throwing their most powerful Pokémon at every problem like all they have is hammers. This should be fun." The Gym Leader gave a respectful bow, as did Max, and they walked to opposite ends of the arena. The icy-blue floor was not-quite frozen over any longer from where four Ice-types had fought earlier, but pretty much anything from one of Wulfric's Pokémon would freeze it anew.

Luckily, his first Pokémon didn't need to use the ground to get around. And neither did the enemy Pokémon, for entirely different reasons. Max quickly checked exactly how heavy avalugg were generally, and found that moving it around was going to be about as successful as trying to move a mountain, judging by the weight. When they moved, it was slow and not al all helpful for dodging anything. Max would need to wait to find an opening to exploit instead of luring it into a bad position, and he quickly told doublade just that.

Wulfric wasted no time in going on the offensive, ordering avalugg to use an attack that gathered in a cloud above doublade, before ice fell down at a rapid pace, the Ghost-type avoiding the Avalanche barely at first, but more easily for the second attack as he picked up speed, diving low to the ground and circling the slow Pokémon.

Avalugg reared up, but before it had pressed itself onto the floor to unleash some kind of icy version of Rock Tomb, doublade was several feet higher up, unsheathing both of his swords. One started to glow purple, slashing down onto avalugg's back with a Night Slash that did very little but annoy the Iceberg Pokémon. The other glowed silver right after that, slamming an Iron Head – Iron Sword? - into the Ice-type.

And the avalugg just stood there, absorbing the damage and catching one of the swords with the edge of an Avalanche.

Max frowned, wondering what could work as doublade resumed his sheathed and cautious approach to the battle. It was similar to fighting dusclops and aggron combined, and the normal way of dealing with aggron – pepper it from range and exploit its limited speed – didn't work because doublade was absolute pants at Shadow Ball. "Guess we'll do it the hard way," he muttered. "Try aiming lower."

Doublade obliged, dipping close to the ground and preparing another Night Slash, only for spikes to erupt from the ground once again, this time in a protective barrier surrounding avalugg. Max whistled doublade back, and an Avalanche was attempted, but failed. "It has even less room to turn around now."

Max's Ghost-type immediately understood. He went for the tail, veering out of the way of a blast of icy rocks in a Stone Edge that shattered part of the spikes. A full-speed-full-body Iron Head was enough to make the avalugg groan, but doublade got caught for it, having to veer low by the ground to avoid the Avalanche, and then a quick wave of rocks shooting up caught him. He righted himself in mid-air, using Iron Defence immediately to weather the Avalanche coming up from above.

From the Iron Defence, he dove into a Night Slash straight at avalugg's face. Avalugg reacted as Max and doublade had expected by creating another barrier. It broke line of sight, and doublade shot over the spikes before slashing down, drawing the tip of one blade straight down the middle of the Ice-type's flat back. It caused a sound worse than nails on a blackboard, but it was over before Max's hands even reached his ears; the Sword Pokémon taking the blade off of avalugg before slamming both of them straight into the Ice-type's tail.

That caused more of a reaction, and Max smiled. Every Pokémon had its weakness, and apart from hitting them in the face – because what Pokémon ever liked that – going for the tail was often a good idea. "It's working!"

An Avalanche missed horribly as doublade spun away from it, heading close to the ground. A quick Rock Tomb raised the spikes behind the Ice-type to about body-height, blocking Max's vision of doublade and Wulfric, but the Ghost didn't reappear to the side. Instead, something purple appeared on the spikes, heading to avalugg's left, and doublade emerged from the Shadow Sneak with both blades ready, Slashing upwards.

Immediately, avalugg started spinning on its axis in a Gyro Ball, but doublade was already gone, having bailed the moment avalugg had bellowed its cry. "Keep your distance," Max ordered, studying the spin that moved slowly around the arena, carrying icy shards from the debris. He was hoping for avalugg to give up on the spin, but after half a minute, it showed no sign of letting up.

Max wasn't about to tell doublade to try and interrupt the spinning with something physical. At over a hundred times doublade's weight, avalugg would probably slam it straight through the shields from sheer transferred force. He hailed the referee, holding up a pokéball, and got permission. "This isn't winnable for you," he said when his Ghost was safe in the capsule, before switching to his second Pokémon. "Vulpix, you're up!"

The red-brown fox took a moment to test the ground, shooting a somewhat arrogant look Max's way before leading with a Flamethrower sent straight at her opponent.

And at least half of it curved with the Gyro Ball's rotation, not hitting avalugg at all. The other half did nothing visible either, though he knew it must have hurt a bit. "Okay. Try a Fire Spin now."

Vulpix had to dash away from the slowly moving spinning Pokémon first, catching some shards of stone for her trouble. The avalugg was gouging a path in the arena, not that it or Wulfric seemed to care.

Fire Spin was a lot more effective. Avalugg lit up in fire, immediately stopping its spin to stop feeding the tornado of flame. A blast of cold energy from its back disrupted the heat enough to dissipate the attack, but vulpix was ready and waiting with a spray of Ember straight at its side. A few hit before a Rock Tomb could be called up, but vulpix had already darted away once again, repositioning herself at its back, where history repeated itself: Embers into spikes.

Vulpix had a plan, though, relentlessly spamming Embers and causing more spikes to appear whenever she spewed the fire. Soon, the fox was back where she started, but the avalugg was now completely surrounded once again, and it had blocked its line of sight after fire had landed on its nose. Before avalugg could shatter its defensive barrier, vulpix slipped into a Quick Attack, running all the way back to Wulfric before turning around, running straight at the icy Pokémon's back.

And then she jumped, launching a Flamethrower simultaneously while in mid-air. Even more, she converted her forward momentum into a forward roll, getting as much flame on avalugg's back as she could.

The landing could use more work, though, and vulpix found herself buried in ice for just a moment before a contemptuous Flamethrower melted all the Avalanche ice and the spikes in front of avalugg's face. "Go get it!"

A deep breath in, and Fire Spin hit ice, then an Ice-type, which soon lost the ability to stand up under its own power.

Max breathed a sigh of relief. He'd had to reveal a second Pokémon – which he didn't really like, but which was acceptable enough – and vulpix, even more than doublade, would not have been happy about being hit by one of the heaviest Pokémon alive, so keeping it from using Gyro Ball had been essential. Vulpix constantly barraging the avalugg had helped a lot, and Max whispered thanks to her after she had made her way over to him.

The next choice he had to make soon presented itself. Sealeo landed on the field, which made Max have to choose between going for doublade, who had taken a few hits already, but also kept his options open, or going for manectric to exploit the Electric-type weakness. There was no way he was keeping vulpix in.

He decided against manectric after a few moments of thinking. Doublade should do well, even if Water-types were generally resistant to Steel-type attacks. Sealeo having actual fat to it would help with landing good hits, too.

The first thing sealeo did was to summon Hail, and Max wondered why avalugg hadn't done the same. It didn't matter either, he supposed as he watched doublade head in close with a one-bladed Night Slash, testing sealeo's response.

The response was a Water Pulse that met the outstretched blade, annoying doublade, but nothing more. The follow-up Ice Beam to try and freeze was more of a threat, but avoiding Ice Beams was something doublade did a lot of in the first place. "Use sealeo's immobility."

Second verse, same as the first, Max thought as doublade flew up high, jinking left at the first Water Pulse and using his thin shape to pass by the second one, faking a hit on the sealeo's snout. The Ice Beam retaliation left sealeo's back half open, and the Iron Head hit, causing the Ice Beam to jerk uncontrollably for a second, though it did nothing to affect the fight.

Max's Pokémon knew better than to stay, leaving quickly, but it proved to be unneeded. Instead, sealeo concentrated before sinking lower to the ground, letting out a shin-high Blizzard that…

Oh, that was _clever._ With a swipe of its front flippers, sealeo got onto the frozen part of the arena, immediately gaining speed as its smooth belly offered little resistance on the ice. In a quick glide, it made its way across half the arena, catching up to the fleeing doublade and launching a Water Pulse straight into him.

Doublade weathered the attack with a muffled cry of annoyance. "Full offence now," Max ordered. The advantage of speed was gone, but that didn't make sealeo any better in close combat.

Both swords unsheathed, one glowing purple, doublade dove straight down after avoiding an Ice Beam. The Night Slash blade blocked a Water Pulse, causing a harsh rain of droplets to impact the ground in front of Max. The other blade swung straight down, nearly hitting sealeo's face, but ending up just slicing off half of its whiskers. Then the Night Slash slammed it right over the head.

The blue Pokémon had the presence of mind to hastily skate away, turning its back on doublade but avoiding a Slash that crashed into the ice below, causing an audible crack. "Sneak after it."

Max saw Wulfric yell triumphantly, and a moment later, he found out why. Sealeo spun on its own axis, using one flipper to stop the movement, and then reared up with both front flippers before slamming them down with vaguely brown energy dancing around them.

The Bulldoze caused a fair amount of the ice to break and crack, but doublade was forced out of the Shadow Sneak, and the ice that came along with him was of the small and sharp kind, impacting everywhere. It made him just a bit too slow at reacting to the Ice Beam.

Doublade landed, both encased in ice and looking knocked out.

Sealeo had not come off unscathed, between being hit with an Iron Head in the rear, and the slashes in front that had left its face marked visibly. One eye was actually half-shut from where the last Night Slash had hit, and manectric could make use of…

White light threatened to blind him as the reflections were everywhere, and Max averted his eyes, shaking his head in exasperation. He really shouldn't complain about mid-battle evolutions; not after xatu, aggron, doublade, and altaria to keep them all safe from Team Flare, but it was annoying.

Walrein was probably a lot more powerful than the sealeo had been, but that was good. He wanted a challenge; always had, always would. He knew a bit of what they could do, having fought a fairly weak one himself and having seen Ash fight one in his Ever Grande Conference.

The memory of walrein using Quick Attack still baffled him to this day, and Max decided to tell manectric to not use that attack, just in case it somehow knew Mimic. Being body slammed at that speed by a Pokémon weighing twice as much as the average grown man was something to be avoided.

As he sent manectric out, he made his decision. He called her over with a sharp whistle on his pinky and index fingers, and as the Electric-type padded over, he gave walrein a quick once-over. It was hard to see between the tufts of fur around its head, and it ducked its head when it saw Max looking, but he thought that its wounds might still be not fully healed. "It could have less vision in its right eye," Max told manectric as he put the collar around her neck, the shields having parted temporarily. Cold beamed up from the frozen arena floor. "Keep moving and keep warm, okay? And don't use Quick Attack on it."

A soft bark, a lick on his hand, and manectric stepped forward as Max uncovered the Key Stone, first rolling up his sleeve as little as he could, then taking the extra patch off. Technically, he didn't need to – the Key Stone would work even through the leather and the sleeve, but it felt right to show it in the open. He held it up for the referee to see, and upon seeing a nod, he concentrated on what manectric and he would do.

As ever, just Mega manectric's mere presence was enough to energise him, and with a quick snap of his fingers, she shot into motion, opening with a casual jagged Thunderbolt that forced walrein to pour everything into an Ice Beam. The attacks exploded, throwing up debris and smoke, and manectric circled around, looking for a clear shot as she assumed walrein had moved.

The Blizzard that went down the field to re-freeze the arena proved it hadn't, and Max had to shake his head as manectric overlaid the ice with Electric Terrain. She – and he, because he had told his Pokémon to always keep moving – had outsmarted herself there. "Stop it from moving around."

Manectric chose to use Discharge for that, positioning herself in the middle of the ice and launching electricity everywhere, only drawing a little power from the Electric Terrain. A Bulldoze threw her up into the air, but she used the apex of the wave travelling along the ground to jump up, redirecting the electricity she was throwing out into a spear that blocked the Ice Beam sent for her. A blast of electrified cold air spread through the arena, not really hindering either Pokémon too much. Walrein probably was worse off from the attack itself, while more hail than normal dug into yellow fur.

Manectric landed handily just off to the side of the gouge avalugg had left with Gyro Ball, immediately pushing out a broad Thunder Wave. A Water Pulse shot straight through it, and only a quick dodge made the ball of water impact just the tips of her fur, instead of her full body. "Keep attacks concentrated. It doesn't seem to use Icy Wind."

The bond sparked with agreement as she sent a quick Thunderbolt out. Walrein blocked it late with a Water Pulse that splashed on the ground in front of it, followed by a weak Ice Beam. Manectric dodged out of habit, but the attack froze the water, giving the walrein a bit more movement in the future.

The Electric-type made her way over to the Electric Terrain, and Wulfric, no fool he, ordered walrein to launch an attack. Blizzard, Max thought, judging by the way walrein reared back up. "Too slow," he muttered. "Now!"

A pillar of Thunder shot forth, blasting through the start of walrein's Blizzard and nailing the Water-type to the ground as electricity coursed through its body. Crackling and popping filtered through the shield, and as ever, it was a sound Max loved to hear.

The walrein got a quick and weak Ice Beam through as manectric had to stop exerting herself; the Electric Terrain fully drained from the attack, but there was more than just a hint of satisfaction in manectric's stance as she repositioned herself. "Don't give it time."

Walrein tried. Oh, did it ever try. Even as smoke still wafted upwards from the colossal Thunder, it fired off a triad of Water Pulses, attempting to force manectric into a jump that would have made her easy pickings for an Ice Beam, but Max's Pokémon dove under the left globe, sliding along the ice. The Ice Beam was still launched, but electricity had already formed on the tips of manectric's fur, and the Thunderbolt gave her enough time to get back to her feet as an explosion blocked sight and sound of the walrein.

A Blizzard shot straight down at Max, the cold palpable against the flaring and humming shields in front of him, but manectric was simply not in its path. She'd run left the moment she'd gotten to her feet, and while walrein did adjust its aim, it was too slow to keep up with the running canine while not being on ice itself. The Thunder had completely shattered any ice in a large radius around the walrein, and the lack of mobility allowed manectric to circle around, reaching the blue Pokémon and immediately heading for its side

With an eager howl, manectric unleashed a skin-contact electrical attack. She finished the Spark by quickly jumping on walrein's back, then her head, before kicking off with as much force as she could.

She soared through the air, landing safely and turning around quickly to watch her handiwork.

Walrein wasn't out, but it was visibly heaving, having been unable to take advantage of manectric's turned back and time in the air. It looked like it needed a breather, but with the hail nearly gone, even the healing properties of Ice Body – if it had that Ability – wouldn't be of much help. "Finish it."

One last Ice Beam created a wall of ice in a semi-circle near walrein, but manectric concentrated her Thunderbolt, meeting just enough resistance to annoy her. She increased the output. blasting through the wall cleanly. Walrein was still too close, and the attack hit it in the side, along with shards of ice from the wall. It fell, leaving only Wulfric's Mega to fight.

The only Ice-type able to achieve Mega Evolution was glalie, as far as Max had read, but with more Stones being discovered every day – there was one for beedrill, of all Pokémon, Max had learned the day before – it was anyone's guess what it would be.

Abomasnow was pretty close to the worst case scenario, he had to admit. It was no mamoswine with its immunity, but apart from that, it belonged to the only Ice-type family that had a resistance to electricity, kyurem notwithstanding. Weak to fire, which made Max a bit happier with vulpix in reserve, but overwhelming power had a way of negating type advantages.

The Frost Tree Pokémon Mega Evolved in worsening hail; the green tinge telling Max that it probably hadn't lost its Grass-type along the way. It favoured using both arms and legs to stand, and while it looked like it wouldn't be moving too much, that was always a threat. Pokémon who did that were generally able to dish out a lot of pain for a long time.

The Blizzard opening salvo proved the point flawlessly, forcing manectric to shape electricity into a power-intensive shield to keep herself safe. The floor around her froze, harsh yellow reflections casting an eerie light over the fight. "Fight in closer. Can't waste the electricity."

The Blizzard ended, and manectric surged forward, manoeuvring around the frozen part of the arena with grace and lots of practice, thanks to froslass. An Energy Ball tried to pin her down, but she was too fast for it, and with a quick whip-like crack, lightning arced out, straight into the abomasnow's abdomen.

It didn't do much except make abomasnow rear up a tiny bit, but that was to be expected. More importantly, Max didn't think any Ingrain roots could've remained hidden through that. The Hail was making it hard to know for sure, though. "Powerful attacks only now!"

Manectric obliged, taking a spray of Ice Shards to allow the Thunder to build and launch. Abomasnow was unable to block it in time – perhaps surprised by the move – but it was able to stomp one of its arms down, creating a Bulldoze that sent manectric up into the air; a second wave following after and nearly ruining her landing as the air turned white with hail and dust from shattered ice. Electricity formed to block an Ice Beam; the yellow distorted by white, and the explosion blocked abomasnow from sight.

Another Blizzard refroze the arena, manectric coating herself in a Quick Attack and Spark to speed through the attack; worry tugging at Max. A pillar of yellow went up, and Max heard the abomasnow grunt, but a yelp followed as something green flashed in the mist.

Silhouettes clashed as manectric tried to use her speed to drive electricity into the abomasnow, but the Ice-type blocked as much as he could, shrugging off the rest with its resistance, or so Max thought. He hadn't heard any painful yelps, which was a plus, but he could feel manectric getting tired through the bond. It also showed in the attacks as the Sparks became wilder; less controlled. "Bite it!"

It turned out setting a tree on fire was effective, but also more than a bit dangerous. A furious Wood Hammer lashed out after shaking to get manectric off, knocking her back half the arena, and this time, her landing was hard enough that Max felt it; sympathetic pain in his side. Still, she got up, albeit shakily, and though her tongue was out in exhaustion, she had more than enough juice left. "One last attack then, girl. Make it a good one."

Thunder arced towards the other side, meeting a ferocious Blizzard. The cold air enveloped the electricity, but didn't overpower it, allowing manectric's attack to push in, and abomasnow was unwilling to redirect its attack into blocking. Instead, it ignored the attack entirely, taking the Thunder to continue freezing the arena and manectric. She was similarly uncaring, just focused on getting as much electricity out.

Manectric stopped first, and Max could not resist shuddering when the bond broke; a feeling of sharp needles stinging all nerves in his body for a fraction of a second. "You did all you could," he whispered into the capsule once the Electric-type had been returned, and he waited a few seconds before sending vulpix out to study the field. Luckily, the hail was mild right now, though that probably wouldn't last.

The middle was a mess. Around the sides, everything was frozen solid; ice reflecting overhead lights everywhere, but in the middle? Where avalugg had also torn a path? Black spots littered the blue underfloor from lightning impacts; the ice melted or shattered from the Thunder. Abomasnow hadn't moved, but even from this distance, it didn't look too great.

The question was if vulpix could knock it out before it could bring its overwhelming power to bear, and there was only one way he was going to find out.

Abomasnow decided to open with a Blizzard, and Max hoped the defence they had practised would work.

Vulpix opened her mouth, coating herself in a ball of flame, maybe three feet across. The dome was complete before the Blizzard reached her, and vulpix braced herself against the incoming winds.

And it worked. Ice and air tore at the flame, seeking to disrupt its unity, but as tongues of flame were ripped away, they were replaced by vulpix. The Fire-type just stood there, weathering the attack.

And then she started walking into it. The demands on the dome increased, but vulpix carefully took step after step forward. After about ten steps, the Blizzard intensified, but she did not falter. After about twenty steps, she reached the edge of the furrow avalugg had made. After twenty-five, the Blizzard stopped, and vulpix immediately used that to rush down the path with a burst of Quick Attack, following it up with a Flamethrower from medium range.

Ice Beam barely blocked it in time, and Max's heart soared. That had been a lot more powerful earlier, but maybe abomasnow had overtaxed itself with the Blizzard after Blizzard. "Now! Go for it!"

Vulpix delivered. Using her strengths to her advantage – she had always been more about power than finesse – she created a swirling tornado of fire at least eight feet high. It sucked in the hail, but the frozen water did nothing to the Fire Spin, not even as she sent it off at the immobile abomasnow. An Ice Beam stopped it in its tracks, steam hissing in the room, but vulpix had counted on a block, and while abomasnow had been busy with that, she had hurried left, using the ice to slide onto unfrozen ground; a Hex already charging.

An Ice Punch blocked that, but with the arm outstretched, vulpix had a prime target for a Flamethrower, and she did not hesitate a single second. Abomasnow attempted a Bulldoze with its left hand, but the Flamethrower hit just before, and the wave was more of a wobble that only served to give vulpix a better angle at actually hitting the tall Pokémon.

A flurry of snow and hail shot out from abomasnow, forcing vulpix to reapply the fiery shield while her opponent readjusted itself to face her. She used it as the basis for another Fire Spin, and this time, the Ice Beam was too late, only being released when the tornado was already upon it.

Max didn't catch what vulpix did to make the two attacks explode, but he had a good idea – something with Ghostly energy – and no Pokémon liked it when there was something blowing up in their face. Abomasnow probably had to close its eyes, and that was all vulpix needed as she jumped up, charging a Flamethrower and unleashing it as she passed over the Frost Tree Pokémon; even doing the same forward rolling motion to make sure she had more time to set it on fire.

This time, she did stick the landing, and behind her, abomasnow fell with a thunderous crash.

Max returned vulpix the moment the referee gave him the win, immediately releasing her into the corner of his bent arm. "That was great!" he said enthusiastically, gently stroking the Pokémon's neck with a thumb. "Walking with the shield really helped."

Vulpix gave him an indulgent smile before letting out a long "piiiiiiix" when Max found her preferred rubbing spot. He did that for ten seconds before she shivered and tapped his right hand with one of her tails.

Max duly returned her, smiling widely. Such a diva, but she had earned it.

"That battle was something," Wulfric said as he walked up to Max's box, coat slung over one shoulder now, fiddling with the locket around his neck. "Had I not heard it from two reliable sources, I would not have believed your Mega Evolution to be recent," he added in a softer voice. "But strength is useless without a brain to wield it, and you and your Pokémon all have one. A cerebral style of battle, like the Psychic-type." He glanced sideways at the partially destroyed field. "Despite what the fight may have looked like to regular Trainers, if they'd been here. Destruction is not necessarily a sign of brutality."

That jogged something in Max's memory. "I thought most Kalos Gyms had Gym Trainers or apprentices?" he asked.

"I sent them away for today. Secrets are best kept with as few as possible. Something you three know something about." Wulfric shot a piercing gaze Max's way. "Diantha will want to speak to you soon."

So that was the second person Wulfric had talked to. Max had wondered, before he'd decided to ask about the Trainers. "She told you that?"

"Not directly, but to those who know her well, she's very transparent." Wulfric grinned, before nodding at something behind Max.

Danny and Serena joined them, and after a high five and hug, Danny shook his head ruefully. "I was feeling pretty good about my battle, and then you up and did that," he said, snorting after. "You'll help me, right?"

"Actually," Wulfric interjected before Max could engage Danny in their fortnightly debate about strength not being everything, "if you ignore the Mega Evolution, both teams I used were roughly similar in difficulty. Max was better at exploiting the weaknesses, yes," he added, holding up a hand to stop interruptions. "But unless I am mistaken, that comes from your defensive style. Am I right?"

Serena looked a bit surprised to be addressed. "We-well," she stammered, before she cleared her throat. "I think… That thing doublade tried to do? Going for the feet? I've seen Max use that on aggron. And shattering the ice to make walrein stay in place is something you did to swinub, Danny."

"See? True strength comes from working together, with friends and Pokémon." He held out a small and opened box. Max took the item inside; his eighth and final Kalos badge. "Your Iceberg Badges were well-earned, and I look forward to what you have to offer our League."

He turned around, but Max cleared his throat. "About what you said… What would you have done if I hadn't used Mega Evolution when you had to send out your last Pokémon?"

Wulfric laughed heartily. "It was always abomasnow, and if your Mega Evolution was a charizard, then so be it. Ice is about rigidity, but sometimes, being too rigid makes you brittle. That has always been my philosophy."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Two days after Max and Danny had gotten their eighth badge from Wulfric, and one day after Max had told the others about his latest Legendary encounter – which had been met with more surprise than hurt at keeping it a secret – they were somewhere halfway between Snowbelle and Gloire. Max didn't know the exact location, nor did he really care. With xatu on their team, backtracking was kind of easy, and they were making good use out of that.

Right now, however, he had something else on his mind. Specifically, a bagon who was lashing out at basically everything in sight when they tried to practice his Fire Fang. "What is up with him today?" Serena muttered as they watched clefairy try to calm bagon down. Normally, it worked, but not this time. "I've never seen him so… tantrum-y."

"Tantrum-y?" Danny echoed disbelievingly. " _That's_ what you're going with?" Serena did something that made Danny yelp, out of Max's sight. "I mean, it is a tantrum, that's true." Bagon swiped at clefairy, who barely got out of the way. "Shouldn't you interfere? Before, y'know."

Max shook his head, careful to keep an eye on both Pokémon. "Bagon knows to not do that, and there are signs for it anyway," he told them. "This is pure frustration. There's something he needs to get out, but he's…" Max hesitated, unsure if he should share his thoughts. "He's not sure how to communicate it. I think he wants to, but he can't."

"Okay..." Danny said hesitantly, clearly not believing him. "I think you should try to–"

A snarl, and bagon using Ember on clefairy, interrupted Danny. With a swift motion, Max sent out xatu, who took one look before creating a simple dome around the two Pokémon. "I'll skip that, thanks," he observed drily. "Clefairy will knock sense into him."

It was a win-win situation for defusing bagon's frustration, as it had been for well over a year. Whenever the dragon was upset, clefairy would try to soothe it. That worked maybe half the time, and the other half involved the two Pokémon fighting. Either clefairy tired bagon out, or, as had happened a few times over the months they'd been in Kalos, bagon hurt her enough to knock him out of his frustration and into a blubbering mess at having seemingly hurt the closest thing to a mother he had.

Seemingly, because at least one of those times had been blatant play-acting, Max knew, and clefairy hadn't denied it when he'd called her on it a few minutes later.

The thing was, Max thought as bagon charged in towards clefairy, that the Dragon had more raw power. If you wanted something hurt or blown-up, he was great at that. Finesse, however, was _not_ a word he understood, and if there was anything clefairy was good at, it was manipulating the arena with Gravity and her amazing jumps, as well as tactical use of Disarming Voice and Magical Leaf.

The two Pokémon were not holding back from the looks of it. "I'll get swampert," Danny said exasperatedly as a Flamethrower set a patch of grass on fire, and Max heard him turn around to go retrieve his starter from the nearby river.

Beside him, Serena suddenly giggled, and Max turned to her in surprise. "Just dawned on me. Bagon's frustrated because of Fire Fang, and now he's using all kinds of Fire attacks."

Case in point, the Embers that tried to get through a Magical Leaf defence. Emphasis on tried – unlike real leaves, these weren't as flammable. "Maybe I should try to teach him Rock Tomb and Stone Edge," Max admitted. "I think it could work for him. Use it like avalugg did."

Clefairy jumped onto bagon's head, quickly manipulating gravity to send him face-down into the grass. "You know more about it than I do."

"Said the girl who gave Wulfric two examples without hesitating," Max returned fire, grinning at Serena before he went back to watching the two Pokémon. "You're a better battler than you think, Serena. Contests should be fine for you."

"You think so?" Serena asked, sounding… hopeful? "You're not just saying that to be nice?"

"Remember. I saw a lot of Contests. I'm not great with flashy stuff, but that doesn't mean I forgot all about them," he said, before wincing as bagon bit down on clefairy's arm. The Disarming Voice retaliation blew bagon back into the smouldering grass. "Maybe you could challenge Shauna to a battle. I'm sure she'd want one."

"Maybe I will." Then, Max saw bagon rush forward, trying to bite clefairy again. This time, however, there was something else in his mouth. "Is that..."

"Yup." Max snorted softly. "A perfect Fire Fang. And he's realised it too."

Bagon was just standing there, while clefairy took a few steps back. He made a few biting motions, both with and without flame, and then he tensed.

And burst into white light.

Shelgon was about twice as big as bagon had been; a white shell that looked like the top of bagon's head covering his entire body, with two exceptions for his head and his back. He seemed a bit stunned himself, but when clefairy approached him, the cry was happy; nothing like the frustrated snarling of earlier.

Max and Serena walked up, and when they were maybe twenty feet away, shelgon noticed them, immediately starting to run towards them.

Five steps later, he planted his shell into the ground as he fell, causing Max and Serena to snort involuntarily, especially after shelgon got up and gave a wide smile. "You're going to have to re-learn a lot of things now," Max told his Dragon-type. "But look at it this way. You won't need to use Fire Fang any longer."

Peals of laughter shot through the air as shelgon grumbled good-naturedly at that.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Just thirteen hours until the gates to Gloire Castle opened. Just fourteen hours until the Master Class Showcase started. It was so close now, Serena could almost taste it as she sat on the top of the town walls, looking out over the inland sea and a night-time boat parade, waiting for the fireworks show.

She wasn't alone. Of course Danny and Max were there, sitting to her left. They'd been behind her all the way, ever since they left Lumiose just after New Year's. Danny had helped with ideas for Performances and he always seemed to find the right solution when she was stuck, and Max had helped with his knowledge about Pokémon and Contests. Danny had even appointed himself as the one who made sure she'd get enough rest the night before a Showcase. Tonight probably wasn't any different.

They were the best friends she could have asked for, and to think that she'd been kind of reluctant to go off with them. Part of that had been her injury, but she also… They were _boys._ She hadn't really thought they could help her, but she had liked them well enough to give it a try, and here she was.

To her other side, Shauna and her friends sat. The perky girl had also gotten herself three Keys, and she'd dragged her boy companions along for the ride. Trevor had been even more bashful than usual with all the people around, but Tierno had told her he was looking forward to seeing all the dances so he could get more inspiration for his own fighting style. The boisterous teen had been eager to show them, and he had done a quick battle with Serena earlier that day.

It had been much closer than she expected. She lost, but basically only because his wartortle evolved into blastoise mid-fight. It had earned him a good ribbing from Shauna, telling him that he needed to practice more for the Lumiose Conference, while Trevor had looked on with a bit of a thoughtful look on his face.

"I wish they did fireworks more often," Shauna suddenly stated from her right, and Serena found the brunette looking at her. "It's just really awesome to watch."

"Uhuh," Serena agreed. "The last time I saw some, it was New Year's."

"New Year's before last," Shauna told her, annoyed at that. "There was no show anywhere near our Center, thanks to Tierno spraining his ankle in a dance move on snow."

"It was worth it!" the large teen told them cheerily, and though Serena didn't see it, she imagined him sticking out his tongue. "But there are two shows this weekend. That's cool."

"Just imagine if the second one would be in our name," Shauna said, and Serena saw her look up with unfocused eyes. "That'd be amazing."

"It's unlikely," Serena replied, realising a moment later that Max had said something similar. She poked him in the arm before he could to that to her. "It's fun to chase dreams, but… There are over fifty of us competing, and then you have to compete with Aria too. And we're first-timers."

Shauna shrugged. "Eh. I'm allowed to dream. After all," she added, perking up, "it is the Kalos motto. Where dreams and adventures begin." The last boat extinguished its lights. "Oh, it's starting!"

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Dear Max,_

 _I heard from Dad what you did. What were you thinking? You had the chance to just stay out of it and you just jumped in feet first. And no, I don't buy that excuse you fed Dad either. You're not that good a Trainer, little brother, and you aren't needed anywhere near Geosenge. Lance and that Kalos Champion were enough to stop it, right? What did you even do in Geosenge to stop them anyway?_

 _Promise me, Max. Promise me that you won't go looking for Legendaries or criminals or anything wherever you end up next. You said you had had enough of doing the police's job for them, remember? When you wrote me in Johto just after getting back home. And I know the Tree of Life thing gave you bad dreams for weeks._

 _Please, Max. Stay out of trouble. I don't want to be called by Dad saying you're in the hospital or anything._

 _Your sister,_

 _May_

 _P.S. I rewrote this four times. I know you're going to ask._

* * *

 **Author's Note (2):** And that is eight, again. Next up, the Master Class Performance. Definitely the home stretch for Kalos now, though the Lumiose Conference is going to have multiple chapters devoted to it.


	34. Masterful Performances

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter** **3** **4** **:** **Masterful Performances**

"Bonjour, and welcome, one and all, to the hour you have been waiting for!" Monsieur Pierre exclaimed as he descended down carpeted stairs; spotlights on him while the rest of the hall had been left in the dark. "It's the Gloire City Pokémon Showcase: the Master Class." Some fireworks went off near him, but the man didn't flinch. "Our Performers have travelled all throughout the Kalos region to attain the three Princess Keys they need to be here. Please give them a warm welcome!"

From several doors in the stage decor itself, fifty-three Performers stepped forward to rapturous applause. Danny spotted Serena fairly quickly on the right side of the stage; the girl standing somewhat awkwardly between two obviously older teenagers who both had half a head on her. The right half of the collected Performers hadn't dressed up yet, which was sort of surprising. If he had to guess, that meant Serena's Performance wasn't for a while yet, but the audience hadn't received a schedule, though the Performers obviously had.

"Alright then. Let us greet our current Kalos Queen as she makes her grand entrance!" their host said once the applause had died down. He turned around, pointing his baton at the door at the top of the carpeted stairs – the same door he had come from earlier. "Please give a warm welcome to Aria!"

The applause was even louder this time as the young woman descended, curtseying a few times, the delphox mirroring it. Both were wearing golden-yellow dresses that flowed behind them as they moved with calm grace. "Greetings! Thank you all for coming here!" Aria said as she reached the front of the stage, a microphone amplifying her soft voice. "And most of all, welcome to all the Performers who have made it here! I am honoured to be sharing the stage with you. The title of Kalos Queen is at stake, so let's compete with everything we've got!"

After a short thanks to the audience, both on-site and elsewhere, Monsieur Pierre stepped forward once again. "Thank you, Aria, for these lovely words. Now, it is time to explain the rules." He flourished his staff, the klefki at the tip melodically jangling its keys. "Here, at our Master Class, there is no Theme Performance. It consists of Freestyle Performances only. Furthermore, the Performers will face off against each other in the following tournament format."

He snapped his fingers, and a projection appeared in between stage and audience. It was the standard three Performers face-off, but at the top, Danny spotted something strange. "Yes, you are seeing this correctly. This time, we decided to have all the Performances, including the final Performance for the title of Kalos Queen, to be between three Performers. All rounds, except for the final, will feature two Pokémon. The two Performers who win the semi-finals will both challenge the Kalos Queen with the use of three Pokémon. Whoever wins that will receive the title of Kalos Queen!"

There was a short round of applause, and Danny took a moment just to appreciate how large the hall was. It was as big as any of the smaller stadiums in Ever Grande, seating arceus knew how many people. "Now, lastly," Monsieur Pierre said as he held his staff aloft. "I will explain the voting. If you are here, and if you have been to a Showcase before, you know how it works. You use the Glowcaster in front of you to vote. If you are at home, you are able to vote using your devices. Pressing the corresponding buttons will do the trick." He drew a circle in the air in front of him, klefki flying off at the end of the trajectory. "Now. Let the Master Class Performance… begin!"

 **~~§~~§~~**

Waiting was the absolute _worst_. The entire thing was extremely tightly timed, which made sense because it was televised, and Serena had the bad luck to be in the fifteenth slot out of eighteen in the first round. She'd finished her preparations partway through the fourth slot, except for her own make-up, which she'd left until after lunch. Now that she'd also finished that, she had to wait close to another hour for her turn, and there was _nothing_ to do.

She didn't even have Shauna to talk to, and she recognised nobody else here. Her fellow Vanivillean was up in the upcoming twelfth slot. From what she'd seen, it would probably be something with Petal Dance and a relatively new and ridiculously cute skitty – Shauna had admitted the night before that she loved using Petal Dance and that the move had won her two of her three Keys. She felt couldn't not use the move on the big stage.

Put like that, Serena had little to say against it. Not when she was going in with the same idea. Fire had worked two times for her, and it just was something she was comfortable with, as much as her mother wasn't. Sure, she'd received a small burn or two, but those were nothing, and the scars were mostly invisible on her tanned skin anyway. At least, she'd had to try really hard to find them a week ago, though she thought she could still see where she'd been burnt. Her shin hadn't scarred, which was good too.

Shauna ended up going through to the second round, and with nothing left to watch, Serena made her way over to the antechamber that all Performers were required to wait in before their turn. One of her opponents was already there, talking to her exeggcute and slowbro, wearing something that wouldn't look out of place in a circus, and that was about as much thought as Serena wanted to put into that. She'd see them do it when it happened, no need to start wondering and lose focus.

She sent altaria out, and started gently grooming the Pokémon's back. It wasn't needed for the Performance, but it soothed her and altaria alike, causing time to pass quick as anything. It wasn't long before she was jolted out of her rhythm, a warm smile on the face of the woman rousing her.

They drew lots for ordering and colour. The girl with the exeggcute and the slowbro would go first, with a red colour for the Glowcaster. The third participant – who didn't have any Pokémon out – was second and yellow, while Serena had a nice dark green for going in third.

They all lined up in front of separate doors in the same hallway – just as before the grand opening. They didn't have to wait too long, and they entered to applause and a short introduction, giving name, age, and which Princess Keys had been won. The spotlight shone down on each of them, and Serena had to force herself to not blink sheepishly as the sudden light surprised her, despite knowing it was coming.

The other Kalos girl did a juggling act, starting off on the ground, but ending up floating and juggling in mid-air, her slowbro holding her up and keeping the exeggcutes going the way they were supposed to. Serena wasn't sure if it was visible for the others, but from where she was standing, the faint glow of psychic powers around the eggs was easy to spot. She did receive a decent-sized applause; not as much as some others, but it definitely wasn't a total failure.

The second one – a girl from Sinnoh a few years older than Serena was – was one, though. It started out okay with a good use of Pokémon Seals unleashing electricity along with an electrike and a klink, who used their Abilities to create an obstacle path for their Trainer to use. All went well until the last part, where the girl had to limbo under a bar of electricity. Somehow, the girl made an error, falling onto the ground, her hand flying to the side and touching another area of the course. The shock wasn't heavy, judging by how fast she got up, but it was a pretty big error.

Serena could only hope she wouldn't do the same. The girl was close to wanting to cry, she thought, but the fact that she had to remain on the podium for another ten minutes was keeping the tears back. "And now, please welcome Serena, from Vaniville, Kalos!"

She used the time the audience spent clapping for her to direct braixen forwards and altaria upwards, and when the applause died, she nodded to Monsieur Pierre, who gave a nod back, starting the clock as he did so.

With a quick breath of flame, braixen lit her wand on fire before sticking it in her tail, proceeding to bow to her Trainer, a gloved hand asking her for a dance. Once Serena accepted, altaria started singing an _a capella_ rendition of a slow ballroom melody, and the two on the podium started moving.

As they moved, Serena saw small wisps of flame seemingly fall off, and as the duo made a sharp turn, one of two in the pattern, she felt a rush go through the theatre hall. She hoped it was a good one as she focused purely on keeping the path she had to walk in her head. By necessity, she had to walk backwards or sideways for this to work; for braixen to be able to direct the flame.

Braixen gave her a small squeeze of comfort as they started the third leaf of the pattern, wordlessly telling Serena that she was still doing fine. A quick glance at the clock told Serena she was doing great on time, with over a minute left.

There was a moment of brief readjusting as Serena realised she was on the wrong side near the end of the dance, but apart from that, it was as smooth and simple a Performance as she had ever been in. Lots of practice to allow braixen to trail flame behind her for over two minutes, but you just didn't get that far without practice, as the past months had taught her.

They ended the dance, walking forward hand in hand, the movement away from the fire nice and cool on her left calf. As they took steps forward onto the apron – the weirdest name ever, Serena thought – braixen started concentrating, squeezing her Trainer's hand to not show the exertion on her face or in her body.

And the _fleur de lis_ rose up behind them; a full fifteen feet high. The icon of fire behind them caused many in the audience; especially those up close, who hadn't been able to see what they had been doing, to gasp in surprise and awe.

Serena and braixen curtseying and bowing was the sign for the audience to start clapping, and Serena did a few more shallow curtseys as she scanned the audience, looking for her friends. She hadn't been able to locate them before, but now she found them; sitting in some of the prime seats two-thirds of the way up in the lower area, slightly off-centre. Max and Trevor were clapping politely, but Danny and Tierno were exuberant. Her currently grey-haired travel companion waved at her as he saw her looking,

She walked back to the door she had entered through, braixen having extinguished the fire completely, with nothing to show for it on the stage itself. As she reached her spot, Monsieur Pierre spoke up. "And now, dear audience, you are allowed to vote. Remember, if you think Gabrielle, exeggcute, and slowbro should win, choose red. If you want to vote for Haley, electrike, and klink, choose yellow. Lastly, if you want Serena, braixen, and altaria to go through, choose green."

And with a flourish, the flamboyant man set off the voting process for the fifteenth time today.

It was really close, from what Serena could see. Not a lot of yellow visible, but red and green balanced each other out pretty well. Serena wanted to say there was more green, but she wasn't certain, and most of the vote came from the people watching anyway. There was some kind of mechanism in place to make sure the votes at home – this was watched by tens of thousands of people at least – didn't overwhelm the people in the castle, but she didn't know how it worked.

It was an agonising five minutes of waiting before Monsieur Pierre stepped forward once again. "And the Performer moving on to the next round is… Serena!"

She fell into a hug with braixen, and one of altaria's wings enveloped her a moment after. "We did it! Thank you so much!"

The embrace had to end, and she spent a few seconds waving and bowing before exiting; the new Performers already waiting. The older girl at her door gave her a quick hug to congratulate her, but then one of the staff waved her to a different dressing room from before.

Time to prepare for the second round.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The first day of the Master Class Showcase was coming to an end, and around them, some people had already left the castle. Danny didn't blame them: the Master Class had been going on for close to eight hours now and barely more than a quarter of the original contestants remained in the competition. Shauna wasn't one of them. She had just been knocked out after her gothita and flabébé had put on a play that hadn't been good enough to beat an ice-skating session.

He wondered how that Performer had convinced the organisation to let it go through. It had caused a ten minute delay while a few Pokémon defrosted the stage. At least it was near the end of the day, and only two more groups were pushed back.

Serena didn't look too nervous when she came out, similar to her first round about two hours back. Unlike last time, she was wearing a full dress now, instead of the shorter one she'd worn for her dance with braixen. She'd stuck with the same colour, again finding something in the pale blue that had stood out so much against the fiery pattern. This time, though, she had found a tan hat with a fairly wide brim that sat on her head, tilted slightly. A small microphone sat near her mouth.

Danny was going to have to ask how much there actually was. He imagined walk-in closets as big as the entire ground floor of their house, just with rows on rows of dresses in all kinds of styles, and then just an endless row of busts with hats.

Serena was up first this time, and she stepped up with cherrim and zorua by her side. Only zorua was dressed up, wearing a tuxedo that he didn't look too comfortable in. A quick Sunny Day overhead revealed that cherrim was wearing small bows on the berry-like nubs above her eyes, though. "Right, zorua," Serena said, speaking into her microphone. "We're going to practice as if we're on a catwalk. Cherrim will walk up to the end, and then do something. You imitate her."

Zorua had barely nodded when cherrim went forward slightly, swaying confidently from side to side before launching a Magical Leaf up, where it hung in a curly pattern, not unlike Serena's own hairdo. "Now you do it!"

Zorua strode forward, head held high in arrogance, as if he was just going to do it. That lasted until he launched the copied Magical Leaf, which ended up covering half of what cherrim had made with some kind of diagonal ring. Zorua's leaves were a dark brown, covering the vibrant colours cherrim had made.

"A good try, but maybe work on the colour a bit," Serena said without blinking. "Let's try it again. Cherrim?"

This time, cherrim created a vague oval, in the same colours as she had before, but zorua, while he did manage to get the colour to be the same, only shot a few leaves up, which formed a curved line and a small cluster above it. "Better! Now, let's use a Sunny Day!"

Both orbs went up, settling below the first flurry of leaves, but above zorua's small cluster. "Wait a second," Serena said. "That looks familiar. Zorua, cherrim? What did you do?"

The two Pokémon chuckled gleefully, and when Serena cocked her head right, the collection of leaves – the imitation of Serena's face, Danny suddenly realised, followed.

The Performer saw it, and turned to the side, looking at her visage in the air. She took her hat off, holding it by the side of her head, and zorua manipulated his set of brown leaves so that the image did the same. She put it back on, and zorua followed. She smiled, and it smiled. She looked up, down, left, right, left, right, and all the while, the image followed her movements perfectly, and quite fast too.

The group moved to underneath the leaves. "Oh, we're out of time!" Serena said, sounding not very surprised, but acting as if she was. "Quick, can you get rid of this?"

They could, and as Serena bowed to the audience, the leaves gently floated to the ground around her.

"That was pretty cool!" a new voice said from Danny's left, and he saw Shauna suddenly sit there; wearing her normal clothing and having gotten rid of all of the make-up she had used. "Keeping three attacks going at once? That's hard!"

"Let's hope it's good enough," Danny said, less certain. It had sounded right, and it had looked right now and in practice, but after having seen nearly all other Performances that day, most of them were far more active and energetic than this one. It was different, and Danny wasn't sure how people would rate that at home.

A bit over ten minutes later, he found out that he was wrong to have worried. It looked closer than it had been for the first round, but Serena still made it through. She looked surprised by that, but it was gone as quick as it had appeared, and she dutifully waved at everyone, thanking the voters and her Pokémon.

 **~~§~~§~~**

It was a tired Serena who made her way out of Gloire Castle, some time after dark. The cold and wet night air, the first fresh air she'd breathed in over ten hours, was heavenly, and she closed her eyes to just stretch out and enjoy for a moment.

When she reopened her eyes, she saw just Danny waiting for her. "Where's the rest?" she asked as she made her way down the stairs, carefully making sure she didn't slip. "In a restaurant nearby?"

Danny gave her an easy grin. "Not really nearby, but who cares about distance when you have the xatu express." He flicked his wrist, sending out the Mystic Pokémon. "Took you ages to get out, though. What did they want you for?"

Serena put a hand on xatu's shoulder. "Group interview to put online, outline how tomorrow is going to work… Boring stuff, really." And slightly annoying when one of the others hadn't gotten it the first time. Really, it was all in the rules brochure that they'd been given on registration. "Can we go eat now? I'm starving."

A nod, and they reappeared outside a family-style restaurant that was obviously catering to the people that had descended on the town for the Master Class Showcase. Danny led them inside, and Serena saw the other four immediately; sitting at a table for six right around the corner of the entrance. Max, as the only one facing the entrance, gave a quick wave, alerting the others to their presence. "Yeah, we ordered. It was taking a long time and Tierno was getting hungry," he stated with a smirk, looking at the large boy eating soup across the table. "It's only been here for like five minutes. Should still be warm."

The soup was some spicy tomato variant that wasn't completely to her liking, but it was good enough. "Is there anything you have planned for tomorrow?" Shauna asked after the younger girl had finished her soup. "I didn't even think that far yet. I would have had to make something up tonight, so… I'm kinda glad I didn't go through!"

Everyone laughed at Shauna's admission, including the perky girl herself. "I've got something..." Serena shared. "But I'm not telling you. You'll have to wait," she added, sticking her tongue out at the other side of the table. To her left, Danny chuckled, while Serena was certain Max at least smiled. "The only thing I'm worried about is sleeping tonight."

Trevor nodded in agreement, but Tierno and Shauna didn't look like they understood. "Why would ya be nervous? Tierno asked. "You're through anyway, right?"

"Doesn't mean you don't want to make a fool of yourself," Trevor replied softly, as he always did. "Especially on national television. I sort of hope I don't get that far in Lumiose."

"Just don't think about it," Max told the red-haired boy. "And remember that going that far means you're already doing great." The entire other side of the table gave him weird looks. "What? I did get to the round of 32 in Hoenn, you know."

"And you don't look a day older than twelve, maybe twelve and a half," Shauna replied with a wink. "Makes it kind of hard to remember."

Serena was certain Max's look of outrage was entirely faked, but the laughter from Danny sure wasn't, nor was the happy feeling in her stomach.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Thankfully, the second day of the Master Class Showcase started in the afternoon. There had been a lunch with the six remaining Performers earlier – the room had screamed festive, but Serena had been more preoccupied with keeping her nerves at a controllable level. Now, however, it was time for her to set the nerves aside and just… Go for it.

She had gotten further than she had ever dared dream herself. If it hadn't been for Danny, she would've been caught flat-footed, like Shauna would have been. Instead, she had practised a good bit in the last two weeks, making changes to the routine – using braixen instead of her original idea of cherrim – and now, she was ready.

One advantage of being in the top six was that you were allowed a lot more props on stage, which was perfect. The Performance before Serena's had involved a crazy amount of confetti, which was taking ages to clean off the stage.

Eventually, green light was given, and the large pyre that had been constructed earlier was wheeled onto the stage from the side. "And now for our second contestant of the day," Monsieur Pierre said from his place at the front. "Please welcome our youngest remaining Performer, Serena!"

Smoothing her black dress once more, she walked forward, sending braixen and altaria out before bending down, carefully lifting braixen up. Thankfully, her knee didn't protest – it hadn't done that in a while – and she carried the supine fox over to the pyre as altaria crooned comfortingly. She kept her head down a bit, both in mourning and to avoid having to show that she wasn't really crying.

She placed braixen in the wood taking a few steps back while dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, and then she knelt. Altaria stopped crooning, braixen – from within the pyre – set the structure ablaze, and that was Serena's sign to start muttering a traditional prayer.

As she prayed for braixen's eternal soul, altaria started singing; soft but evocative notes spreading throughout the theatre, lingering in the air and piercing down right to Serena's soul. It was strong enough to cause tears to well up without trying, and she fought to keep emotion from affecting her voice too much.

Altaria's singing changed slightly as Serena's prayer ended. As she rose, the Dragon overhead soared over the pyre, her thrills mixing in hope for a better future, and her flight path fanning the flames. She did that twice more while Serena stared into the fire unflinchingly, and after the third time, braixen made the flames burst out towards the ceiling once before extinguishing them down to embers.

Serena moved to the back of the pyre, palming her pokéball but keeping it hidden. Braixen was still in there, and as Serena bowed over the smoking ruins – carefully not breathing in any of the smoke – to look at the remains of her dead partner, she returned braixen. The smoke and wood hid the visible red, and she quickly balled her fist, hiding the ball inside.

Then altaria settled on the pyre, causing it to collapse slightly, as she ended her song on a long and hopeful note. Serena moved to stand besides her blue Pokémon, placing a hand on white wings, and both of them bowed to the audience.

There was more applause than there was for the first Performance, especially after braixen reappeared, taking a specific stick out of the pyre demonstratively. Serena located her friends, sitting far down in the middle, and she gave them a bit more of a smile. It had gone well.

But ten minutes later, she was out. She didn't understand where the votes had come from – she'd seen a majority of all the Glowcaster lights in the room be her yellow, and both of her fellow Performers had looked impressed with her show as well, but she had come second.

Serena felt numb, though there was a part of her that was okay with it, and she tried to hold on to that feeling as much as she could. She didn't look at the other girl who had been knocked out – mostly because she felt uncomfortable watching her breakdown – but just listening to it hurt.

The awkward situation – Serena studying tiles on the floor and walls to not look left – lasted until there was a knock on the door. It opened immediately after, Aria coming through, wearing surprisingly normal clothing. Fashionable, but normal. The Kalos Queen saw Serena looking, but she gestured towards the other girl, and the two soon started huddling as Aria tried to soothe the broken heart.

Serena started cleaning altaria and braixen, trying to remove all the soot and ash. It was a normal ritual, and one that soothed all of them.

Altaria was completely soot-free, while braixen only had a few spots left on her tail, when nails tapped on wood. "Are _you_ okay?" Aria asked softly, taking a chair and sitting on it reverse-style. "You were only two percent off from reaching the final."

"Really?" Serena said, looking over at the television mute in the corner. "I didn't know that."

"You scored great _here_ , but I think the altaria song was… How do I say it… It didn't carry the same emotion through the television microphones. But don't let that get you down," Aria continued, putting a gentle hand on Serena's arm. "You played to your strengths. The daring of bringing something so sad and recognisable into the Showcase is something we really need here in Kalos."

Serena blushed under the praise. "I… It was based on something I saw. Someone with a kirlia and a violin. She..."

Aria shushed her. "I know who you mean, and she'd be proud to have inspired someone like that. She was the other finalist in April." She turned towards the TV, which was now showing the set-up for another Performance. "I guess I'll be seeing you more. Maybe you'll even be my successor!"

"I… I'll be going to do Contests," Serena blurted out. "S-Somewhere."

"Great!" Aria said enthusiastically. "They're amazing for working with your Pokémon. Lots of Kalos Queens have a Contest background somewhere. I did a season in Prudan. Is that where you're going?"

"I… uh… I haven't decided yet, but… Maybe somewhere East."

Aria looked surprised, and maybe a bit disappointed, but then it vanished. "Well, wherever you go, you'll do great. I just know it. You can make Kalos proud!"

And quick as anything, the Kalos Queen left through the wooden door, the click of the lock echoing in the silent dressing room.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Quick but measured knocks on the door to their room made the three teenagers look up from their game of cards. Max shot a glance at the others, and they seemed to know as much as he did. "It's open," he called out as he put his cards face down, turning towards the door. From the corner of his eye, he saw Danny's klefki and helioptile turn around as well.

In walked a woman in conservative, even old-fashioned clothing, with a broad-rimmed hat and a reflective pair of glasses. A handbag was slung over her shoulder, looking like it was made from fine leather, but nothing Max hadn't seen his mother use. Then, the woman removed the hat as she closed the door behind her, and Max felt he should know her.

Then the glasses came off, revealing the woman to be Diantha. "Good. You're all here," she said as she walked over, casting a glance at the floor. "Ah, that does bring me back. So much time spent playing cards with my best friend, way back when I was your age." She let out an elegant giggle. "But I guess you're wondering why I'm here now."

Max resisted the urge to reply sarcastically as he rose. "Wulfric mentioned you might want to speak to us soon."

"I thought he might," Diantha replied as she sat down at the desk. She placed the bag on the wood; a _thunk_ revealing there was something hard inside. "I'm here for two reasons. The first one isn't set in stone yet, but since I'm here anyway..." She smiled warmly at them. "The government and the League want to host a celebration for those who helped stop Team Flare. The details are still being worked out, but there will be one, and your identities will become known to the public by that point."

Diantha's statement stunned Max. The hell was that? A celebration? A million questions ran through his head.

And Danny was faster at asking one of them. "Did Lance tell you..."

"Yes," Diantha stated simply, flatly. "In detail, when he shared Olympia's predictions with me. But there is no need to reveal that, Danny. In fact," she added, smiling once again, "we don't even need to stretch the truth that far."

Three blank faces greeted that statement, but then Serena had a brainwave. "Oh! Because we went with Clemont..."

The Champion gave an approving nod. "You went with Clemont, who's said on record that he asked you to join him. From there, you found out about Geosenge, went there because you had Teleport-capable Pokémon, and the rest is simple." She looked at Max, fixing him with a stern gaze. "That you forced him to let you join isn't something that needs to be on record, and Clemont knows that."

Strangely, Max didn't think Diantha really disapproved of that, despite what she was saying. "Do you know when this will be?" Danny asked.

"Before the Lumiose Conference is all I can guarantee," Diantha told them. "To not take away from that. The League wouldn't stand for it, even if you're both participants. Naturally, it will be in Lumiose as well."

Anything more Diantha wanted to say was interrupted by insistent beeping coming from Serena's bed. Max saw the girl blush ferociously. "Sorry. I have cookies in the oven."

"Go, Serena," Diantha replied gently. "We can wait. Maybe Max can tell me the story behind his shirt while waiting, too."

Serena left hurriedly, leaving the boys in the room with the Champion, who reached into her coat to take out a customised pokéball in green, white, and red. Max knew before it opened which Pokémon was in there; Diantha's signature gardevoir, and he bowed to her as she came out. It was returned, but the gardevoir definitely looked surprised. "Danny had it made for my last birthday," Max replied after he'd straightened up. "It's..."

"Your three first Pokémon – at the time, I presume – and a ralts," Diantha talked over him as her Pokémon's red eyes bored into Max's, searching for something. "Augustine said as much. Where does the ralts come in? A Pokémon you want, but haven't been able to find?"

"A Pokémon I met while travelling when I was younger, but one I lost to poachers. He… We found him, but he died in my arms."

The overwhelming, almost palpable, aura of sorrow that flared through the room nearly made Max recoil before the gardevoir reined it in. Even so, Max saw the raw compassion shining through on her face; and he quickly averted his eyes to not lose himself in that. Right now was not the time to blubber like a toddler. "You are a stronger person than I was at your age," Diantha observed calmly, giving nothing away in voice or expression. "Had something happened to gardevoir – ralts back then – I don't think I'd have been able to put it to rest like you have. You give me too much credit, gardevoir," she added when the Pokémon let a soothing cry slip. "Or maybe it's nostalgia tinting your memories of me."

"You can understand her? Like, with telepathy," Danny asked. "Or is that just knowing each other?"

"Telepathy was never something gardevoir was good at. We gave up working on it years ago," Diantha answered with a wry grin. "After eighteen years of being together, our bond doesn't really need words either."

"Mega Evolution must have been easy for you," Max said, hoping to change the subject. "Knowing each other like that, I mean."

The look Diantha gave him expressed clearly that she knew what he was doing. "It was, but it did mean that I thought Mega Evolution was more limited than it appears to be." She took the charm with her Key Stone out from under her blouse. "Until March of this year, I thought Mega Evolution was limited to Trainers and Pokémon who had been together for a long time, and then a young man from Kanto proved me wrong. Then I thought it was limited to experienced Trainers."

"And then Max came along," Danny finished flippantly, as always eager to draw attention Max's way.

"Indeed," Diantha agreed drily.

The door opened, and Serena walked back in; a plate with warm cookies in one of her hands. She placed the plate on the desk after using her foot to close the door. The plate rattled on the desk as she dropped it the last inch or so, before trying to cool her hand off by waving it to and fro. "Yes, they're warm. Yes, they're good to eat – I already had one," she added, mostly to head off Danny, who had been about to ask if they were available.

"Allow me," Diantha interjected, and gardevoir picked up five cookies, splitting them amongst everyone taller than five feet, and then giving one more to the helioptile that had tugged on her dress. She offered one to klefki as well, but the Key Ring Pokémon jangled a 'no'. "These are good. Love the balance of orange and cinnamon. You must've done well on any Poké Puff baking in your Showcases."

"Actually..." Serena said sheepishly, a hand in her short hair. "I was knocked out in a Theme Performance one time there was baking involved. I was a little distracted that day."

"It was after Team Flare tried to steal Professor Sycamore's Garchompite," Danny explained. "And since Max got on the wrong end of a joltik there..."

"Ah," Diantha said as if it explained everything. "Good to see that you didn't let it get to you too much. You got a lot further than I did in my first Master Class Showcase, to say the least." She glanced over at gardevoir. "Knocked out in the first round because _someone_ tripped on her ribbon."

The Psychic-type didn't look repentant at all, instead levitating more cookies to everyone. "You were a Performer?" Serena asked, sounding completely surprised. "But… You're the Champion?"

"And Hoenn's former Champion has multiple Grand Festival victories under his belt," Diantha replied with a nod to Max and Danny. "The two aren't mutually exclusive. But as fun as reminiscing is, there is a second reason I am here." She took a small box from her handbag. "I remember you had an aggron, Danny."

"Yeah?"

In response, Diantha flipped the box open, revealing a silvery Mega Stone, with a pale white and dark grey symbol. A _familiar_ Mega Stone. "This is Aggronite, one of the two Team Flare had in their possession. One of them was stolen from Durocor, but we have no idea where this one came from. Originally, we – the group who are dealing with all the fallout from that day," she explained quickly before anyone could ask. "We were going to give it to Wikstrom, but that man refused it. Instead, he suggested you."

Danny let his cookie fall, though Max didn't hear it hit the ground. "M… Me? W-why?" the older boy asked, his voice cracking.

Diantha smiled at him. "'For duty above and beyond to a country not your own,' was what Wikstrom said. He values those things. Siebold and Drasna agreed, and together, we were able to convince the bureaucrats. It is yours if you want it."

"Key Stones work for everyone, Danny," Max said, seeing his friend still doubt and guessing that was the reason for it. "There's nothing stopping you from using mine."

"But… What if I can't get it to work?"

Max couldn't help himself, a chuckle escaping, and Danny's betrayed look only turned it into full-blown laughter. "Sorry Danny," he said as he forced his laughter down, his voice still feeling weird in his throat. "But weren't you the one who told _me_ what to focus on for my Mega Evolution?"

"Max is right," Serena added. "You'll be able to figure out how to work it in no-time. If you tried right now without thinking too hard, you'd get that thing Max had too."

"Let's not do that in here. A Pokémon Centre room on the second floor isn't built for Mega aggron, I think," Diantha observed, sounding amused with the teenagers. "I don't think Max's ability to Mega Evolve his manectric is that much of an anomaly any longer. You should definitely be able to, and if you're stuck… You have friends to help you." She handed the box over, Danny accepting it almost tenderly. "One last thing… It occurred to me that you were as important as they were, Serena, but now you're the only one without a reward of some kind."

"That's fine," Serena said hastily, holding her hands up. "I didn't do as much as they did."

Max tried to catch Danny's eyes, but his friend was entranced by his new Mega Stone, as were both of his Pokémon. "You still fought. You could've left after Durocor, but you didn't. You chose to stay, even after..." Max trailed off, unwilling to air private matters between Serena and her mother. "Even after everything."

"I am thinking of a different kind of reward," Diantha said, confusing Max. Serena had been about to say something, but… He didn't follow. "An Egg for any Pokémon of your choice. Drasna comes from a family of Pokémon Breeders, and she has contacts throughout Kalos."

" _Any_ Pokémon?" Serena echoed uncertainly. "Even if..."

"If they are available," Diantha said. "Next to no restrictions on Pokémon rarity or anything." Serena appeared to be uncertain still, causing Diantha to speak up once again after a bit of a pause. "How about you think about a Pokémon and come back to me when you have an idea. After all," she added, winking. "We'll be in the same city for quite a while."

 **~~§~~§~~**

From the moment he had woken up that morning, Keith had had a huge grin plastered on his face. It was his birthday, and he'd already received presents from everyone he knew here in Kalos. His girlfriend had been the first, and apart from the wake-up kiss, she had given him a Soothe Bell. Second hand, but since the things cost a fortune new and only an arm and a leg second hand, Keith could very well forgive her for it. In fact, he felt it was far too extravagant a gift, but Jane had shushed him with the threat of tickling him.

Sadly, that threat worked every time she had pulled it out, ever since she had shown that her fingers were absolutely merciless at leaving Keith breathless in a less pleasant way than he was used to from her.

His mother hadn't sent her present over, but in her letter, she had included pictures of some fine-haired brushes Keith had wanted for a while now. The ones he had taken to Kalos were fine, but with how much he used them… He was due new ones.

Danny's gift made him wonder if her mother had talked to the other boy. That gift had been a bigger case for his figurines and miniatures, painted and unpainted. The varnish on the wood smelt heavy and brand-new, and the accompanying note said it came from an artisan in Gloire City. Serena's gift had been from there as well, but different: a huge amount of cookies in all kinds of flavours. He'd already eaten five of them before Jane had stopped him with the promise of cake.

And Max, being Max, had given him a subscription to a magazine. One on painting. Keith wasn't sure if it was good, but he could probably learn a thing or two from it anyway. It was a quarterly, with the first ready and waiting for him about when they were back in Petalburg, about a month from today.

It sure beat last year's birthday, which had involved being soaked by a sudden cloudburst while he was out training.

But even now, normal things still had to be done. As much as Keith wanted to just spend the day inside, relaxing with Jane and his Pokémon, eating all the cookies and cake, there were supplies to pick up, and after waiting for a patch of rain to pass by, they made the trip, returning to the Center maybe half an hour later. Unfortunately, it was typical autumn weather, and a steady drizzle soaked them on the way back.

Nurse Joy waved at them the moment they entered, a letter appearing in her other hand. "This one's for both of you," she said as the two of them came closer. She handed the letter to Jane, who had handed her share of the supplies to Keith. "It was delivered by a courier, too. What did you do?"

"A courier? What's that mean?"

"It means someone paid extra to make absolutely sure that the letter was delivered," Nurse Joy answered Keith's question. "And that it wouldn't get stuck in the Center mailing system we use when letters need to go elsewhere."

"Best open it, then," Jane reasoned, using her medium-length nails to quickly and elegantly open the envelope. Keith saw her read the first line or so before she paled. "Uh, is this real?"

"She did say it was from the government," Nurse Joy said. "What's it about?"

" _We would like to cordially invite you to attend the Victory Over Flare Celebration,"_ Jane quoted. _"As guests of honour."_

"You… You're two of _them_?" Nurse Joy whispered, her eyes suddenly wide. Keith nodded hesitantly. "Thank you so much for what you did."

Jane waved it off, but Keith could tell she was uncomfortable with the sudden attention. He touched her on the arm, holding up the bags as an excuse to go. His girlfriend understood, and they left. "I hope it won't be like that a lot. It's already old," he stated as they walked up the stairs. "Man, why did they have to do this..."

"It was potentially world-threatening," Jane stated as she scanned the letter. "They say something about that too, and… Oooh, you're going to lo-hoooove this," she added, suddenly sounding far happier than she had a moment ago. "It's formal wear."

Keith blinked. "Formal… wear?" he echoed slowly. "What's that?"

Jane didn't answer, instead opening the door to their room. Houndour immediately greeted them once they entered. "Oh, you know," she said cheerily as houndour licked her free hand. "Jacket, fancy shirt, fancy trousers, leather shoes, tie. Everything you hated wearing in that play back in school."

Now Keith remembered, though he wished he hadn't. He'd nearly managed to banish it from his memory, but it kept popping up. "Great. Just great. And how bad is it?"

He tried to make a grab for the letter, but Jane jerked the paper out of his hand's way. "Well… They say that it's understandable if we don't have 'full formal wear', whatever that means, but..." she said, hesitating only to smirk at Keith. He got a sinking feeling from that. _"Other attendees include the Kalos Elite Four, its Champion, and several members of the Kalos government, including its Prime Minister and its President."_

Keith dropped onto his bed. "So I get to make a fool of myself in front of lots of important people?"

"Danny, Max, Serena too," Jane added, not helpfully at all, and knowing it. "There's one bright side for you..." Keith looked up, seeing his girlfriend move up and lean in. "You get to see me in a dress, and if I find a good one… You're gonna love that."

She gave him a quick peck on his cheek and walked away to their bathroom, having grabbed a towel at some point.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Reginald turned the television off with a furious press of the button. He had had his friends and allies cite finding upon finding, sociological research upon research, and yet it had done absolutely nothing in dissuading the moronic zealots from their asinine path to make Hoenn safe through banning Pokémon ownership. There was no proof for it, nor was there any proof whatsoever that there was anything inherent to the restricted Pokémon types that had caused them to terrorise Hoenn over the past fifteen months. Weren't the literal millennia spent with Pokémon already – and the century since pokéballs had become widespread – enough proof that Pokémon possessed a sense of loyalty and camaraderie?

Idiot sheep. He had little patience for people behaving in moronic ways – one of the reasons why he had relocated the Gym here upon his taking the position fifteen years ago was to get away from Lilycove's hubbub and bustle – and it showed in the amount of Badges he gave out each year, but this was worse than that.

He was so angry that he nearly missed the sudden appearance of a somewhat agitated man in a corner of his den, but his colleague did appear, quashing his agitation visibly with a breath out. "I thought you were on holiday, Tate. I certainly recall Liza extolling its virtues. Some kind of cruise?"

"Liza can have her poolside lazing. I felt a bit under the weather and went to have a lie down in our suite," Tate stated casually, inspecting Reginald's collection of liquor. "And in about fifteen minutes, Liza will return there as well." The male half of the Mossdeep Gym Leader pair took a seat on the armrest of Reginald's sofa. "You tried to disseminate the truth?"

"The League Politics Act," Reginald started, only for Tate to roll his eyes. "Why do you accuse me of subverting the law?"

"Playing dumb does not become you," Tate said, a hint of steel in his tone betraying that his calm facade was skin-deep. "We know. Umbra, Casper, Liza and I. Phoebe told us. Said she felt a storm coming, and that we should be prepared."

"I wasn't aware Phoebe was in the habit of dispensing fortune cookie wisdom," Reginald replied calmly, inwardly wondering what the Elite Four member's plan was. "Did she tell you anything about what made her feel that?"

"It was the day after her half-yearly excursion to Mt. Pyre, like a month back," Tate said. "Something about a ninetales that clearly spooked Casper too. But that's enough. What did you do?"

Well-informed or not, Tate was still slightly impatient, as was youth's wont. This time, Reginald could forgive him. Despite the vote only just having taken place, Tate had presumably followed it closer than he had, which was saying something. He would have known the lay of the votes and the improbability of the restrictions failing to make it through. "Cited research, appealed to history… Any opposition argument that wasn't that inane 'live and let live' drivel, I considered. For naught, it seems."

"And what do you think of the specific implementation? Any loopholes?"

"Not in Hoenn itself. The requirements to be allowed to own one are nailed down, and while I expect Birch to vehemently protest and not be too happy about adhering to it himself, the government knows that," Reginald said as he walked up to the liquor cabinet. "They will perform checks, and remind him about everything, the usual carrot and stick, heavy on the stick." He selected a good brand of whiskey and took a glass from the upper half. "Evolutions that aren't item-induced are also taken care of – more leniently than I had been expecting, to be frank."

"And any chance of expanding the restrictions?"

"The public won't stand for making them common," Reginald said as he poured two fingers. "Barring more attacks, of course, but mark my words, Tate. There will be a decrease – markedly, but not completely – of the attacks in the months after the restrictions are in."

It took a few moments, but then horrified understanding dawned on the lanky young man's face. Reginald shushed him with a gesture, nodding to show him that yes, he had just essentially stated that it was an inside job.

He could only hope Tate took the implied advice and kept his head down.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _In the light of the continuing attacks, the Hoenn government has enacted restrictions on Pokémon ownership. Starting in the new year, starting Trainers will not be allowed to own Psychic, Ghost, and Dark-type Pokémon before they meet one of the following requirements:_

 _Fifteen continuous months of experience as a Trainer.  
Owning six badges of a fully accredited League._

 _Reaching the second round in a Grand Festival or local equivalent._

 _In addition, those who own a Pokémon of the aforementioned type, but are not on the Trainer rolls, will have to follow mandatory instruction in how to deal with those Pokémon in case of a terrorist emergency._

From: Lilycove Times, October 16.


	35. Formal Exchanges

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 35: Formal Exchanges**

Max adjusted his tie, feeling slightly nervous as he saw the sheer amount of people in the large and opulent hall he had been ushered into along with Danny and Serena. He noticed golden chandeliers; paintings of ages long past; annals of history he had no idea about. People mingled around tall tables as soft classical music struggled to make itself heard over the chatter. Every last one of the people that Max could see was dressed much like they were: either in suits or in evening gowns. The far side of the room was elevated slightly; the natural stage currently empty of people except for someone wearing what looked like waiter's clothing.

The last time he'd been at something like this, he'd spent most of the event at the food tables. Nearly eleven year old boys weren't expected to dance at a ball after all. He doubted he'd be that lucky this time, though there wasn't any dancing on the schedule.

"Verily, I welcome you to this event," a male voice, deep and formal, came from Max's right, and he resisted the urge to spin on his fancy shoes. He'd done that before, and he'd ended with his face on the floor because of it. "Masters Maple and Birch, Mademoiselle Galbena," the steel-clad man greeted each of them in turn, a hand on his heart. "It gladdens my heart to be able to converse with you in person. Follow, if you please?"

Max glanced over at Danny and Serena, giving a minute shrug and receiving two in return before following Wikstrom to a comparatively empty part of the hall. A waiter intercepted them as they found a table, handing all four of them glasses of water. Max immediately took a large sip to quench his throat, finding the water pure and cold. "Er… Master Wikstrom?" he started afterwards, receiving an approving nod from the member of Kalos's Elite Four. "Why did you bring us here?"

The older man smiled, restrained but happy. "In part because it would not do to leave you to flounder and gawk, as much as it is warranted in these resplendent halls. Equally so, I wished to formally meet those who served Kalos bravely, without any expectation laid upon them." He, too, took a sip from his drink. "That tailor's cut appears familiar. Amind, if I am not mistaken."

"He came recommended," Max said when Danny refused to speak up.

"And verily, his reputation for quality at reasonable prices helped in your decision," Wikstrom observed, the corner of his lips tilting up when Max blushed faintly. "Worry not. Though some here do judge upon one's wear, a far greater number are understanding of your plight as Trainers and teenagers not yet fully grown. To you, this probably feels frivolous, does it not, Master Birch?"

Danny stopped surreptitiously tweaking his bow tie, surprised at being called out. "A… A bit. I've never been to something this formal." Max and Serena quickly nodded in agreement. "And I'm a little bit scared, too. What if I say something wrong?"

"Be polite, and you can say most anything," Wikstrom replied. "Though the majority of those here are politicians of all walks, they understand that you are young yet." He noticed Max's soundless groan. "Indeed, Master Maple. Politics is hardly something you can be expected to indulge in, but when in Kalos, do as Kalosians do." The soft smile was compassionate, though Max still got the feeling Wikstrom was enjoying this somewhere. "It might be prudent for you to always be with someone you know, though I would advise against staying in a single large group all night."

Max thought he understood that, and after exchanging a temporary farewell with the Master Steel-type Trainer, he immediately spotted another familiar face, looking about as at-ease as he felt. Clemont spotted him as well, and the Gym Leader, wearing a dark blue suit of a similar colour to Serena's dress, excused himself from his chat. "I'm glad to see you," he said without hesitation. "I hate suits, and I had to get one fitted last week because of this. I'd been hoping to put it off until the Gym Leader meeting in December."

"You wear suits to the meetings?" Max said. He couldn't remember his father ever wearing a suit, except for weddings or wedding-related things, like their anniversary.

Clemont nodded, a sad look on his face. "All of us do, except Olympia. There's a tradition to petition against it, but that goes nowhere." He sighed deeply. "At least I like my tie."

Max took a look at the burgundy tie, noticing small matt yellow lightning bolts patterned all over it. "That's cool. Wish I'd been allowed something patterned." He adjusted his tie again, mainly to make sure it was still straight. "Instead of this one-colour one."

"The dark green does look nice on your white shirt," Serena opined. "And all the patterned ones were terrible."

"I told you you should've just bought something and just presented it as a fact," Danny teased. "Bow ties are better than regular ties, too. Way cooler."

"Can't help it my letter ordered me to wear a regular one." That caused Clemont to raise both eyebrows in surprise. "Do you know something about that?"

"Suspicions, nothing more," the Gym Leader stated, though Max wasn't so sure. Something about Clemont's tone made _him_ suspicious, and the older teenager turning around to watch the entrance didn't help. "Isn't that Keith and Jane?"

"It is," Danny confirmed, giving a wave when he saw Jane look in their direction. The girl led the newly fourteen-year-old over to them. "That is one fancy dress, Jane. Are you sure Keith's going to survive the evening with you in that?"

Jane laughed, while Keith's glare was half-hearted at best. "He'll manage," she said as she showed all of her dress off for Serena. It was some kind of blue-violet that Max didn't know the name of, but that fit her perfectly. "You're all looking great, too. Love the bow tie, Danny."

The group talked for a bit more until Serena reminded them about what Wikstrom had said, and they split up into two groups, Max going with Keith because he wanted to know something. "Isn't Jane normally… Y'know. Shy?"

Keith nodded his head a bit as they passed by a group of elderly men discussing something about fishing. "Kind of, but she took something for her nerves. Don't know what, but… She's been in a teasing mood since it kicked in."

Max noticed Keith's slight blush. "Doesn't look like you mind too much."

"Can we talk about something else?" Keith whined as he looked anywhere but Max or where the others were.

Just then, Max saw a familiar face nearby, and he tapped his nervous friend on the shoulder. They swiftly made their way over to the group of three, which had another familiar face in it. "Maël, Mister… Mayor?" Max finished uncertainly, realising he had never actually found out the name of Geosenge's mayor.

"It's Stone. Unrelated to your Champion," the greying man said in return, bowing slightly. "It is good to see you again… Max and Keith? If I'm not mistaken?"

"You aren't, sir," Maël said as he opted to shake hands with both of the younger teenagers. "We were just explaining the plans for rebuilding to Madam Philippe."

At that, the elderly woman – grey, more than a few wrinkles, wearing a loose grey circle-patterned dress – stepped forward, inclining her head slightly. "If I hadn't seen the pictures of you myself, I wouldn't have believed it," she said in a surprisingly strong voice. "You are both younger than my grandchildren, but made of far sterner material. They would have run."

Max resisted the urge to shrug. Time and place, and this was not it. "There's no shame in that, I think. I would've done the same if I'd known what exactly Team Flare was going to do."

"You mean to say that you didn't know of Team Flare's plan?"

"We knew there was something," Max answered. "That's what the computers under Lysandre Café told us. That they were trying to awaken yveltal… That only came when we had infiltrated the base."

"And we only found out later," Keith added, looking at Maël. "When yveltal was already free."

"I remember that moment," the museum employee said, half-lost in memory if his voice was any indication. "I was half-convinced we would die. Thankfully, we didn't."

"If you hadn't sent the warning when you did," Madam Philippe resumed speaking, gripping a glass of white wine lightly in her hand as she addressed Keith, "and if the two Champions and you hadn't slowed the God of Death down, hundreds would have died. Perhaps even thousands." Max and Keith looked at each other, his friend looking surprised at something. "Heroes, all of you, yet sickening that Lysandre was able to get this far in the first place." She finished her drink. "If you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to."

They watched her move over to a nearby group of men and women, instantly asserting herself in the conversation. "I never cease to be amused by her," the mayor stated, and Max turned to face him and Maël. "She always says she is not an influential member of her party, but every time we meet at events, she shows that her words have clout. You made a good ally there with your forthrightness."

"I only told the truth."

The mayor's sudden laugh made Max blush. "Oh my. Telling the unvarnished truth. You are young and unknowing, aren't you," he said, before coughing once. "For your own sake, Mister Maple, I'd suggest to be more careful in the future. Tonight, you are capable of saying most anything, but it might not be like that all the time."

"Why is he?" Keith asked.

"You did save Kalos from disaster. That does afford leeway," mayor Stone replied with just a hint of sarcasm seeping through. "That's all of you, by the way."

The next hour or so passed without much note. Max tried to stick with talking to groups he already knew people in. He found Clemont in one group, a Battle Chateau Duke in another, and there was a polite debate on the merits of certain tournament forms between Wikstrom and another Elite Four member – Drasna, the Dragon Master – that he felt fine listening to.

Eventually, he found himself alone at the edge of the hall, Danny having just left to visit the toilets. His glass was nearly empty, but as he looked around to find one of the waiting staff, a balding man in a charcoal suit saw him looking and started walking towards him with purpose.

Max hid a sigh. He'd been ambushed like that before, and that had been uncomfortable, to say the least. Something about how Lysandre's actions were understandable from a certain point of view. It had taken most of his willpower to not reply to that in a way that'd make him look like a petulant toddler. "Good evening, sir," he said as the man moved closer. A dark-green band crossed the man's torso, left shoulder to right hip.

"Ah, yes, I suppose it is evening by now," came the reply in a voice that was higher pitched than Max was expecting. Male, but more like Maël or even Danny than like Wulfric. "A good evening to you then, Mister Max Maple. I hope you're enjoying yourself? As much as you can, of course."

"I suppose," Max said non-committally.

"Of course," the man said, gesturing to tell Max to walk with him, leading the teenager to a relatively abandoned corner of the hall. "My sons wouldn't be caught dead at events like these. Too boring, not enough action, something like that. Youth these days..." The shake of the head was exaggerated, even Max could see that. "May I ask you a personal question?"

The sudden change of tact threw Max for a small loop. "I guess?"

"You are from Hoenn, as are three of your friends. The same city, in fact. What made you decide to come here to fair Kalos?"

It _was_ a personal question, but one Max didn't really mind answering anyway. "I wanted to learn more about Mega Evolutions. Danny came with me," he said, finally finding a waiter, who nodded before he could even ask for a refill. "Don't know why Keith and Jane came here."

"Ah, yes, Mega Evolutions. I would hope you've learned more about them, now that they're starting to become more common." The man, too, had a refill – of water, and not of wine like Max had seen most adults drink. "I heard there was something to do about Pokémon in Hoenn, recently."

Max nodded, mood souring slightly. He'd read about the restrictions, and he hadn't really liked them. Luckily, he wouldn't be in trouble, but hethought his cousin, Evan, had wanted to get a Poochyena for a starter Pokémon. "The government wants to protect people from some Pokémon types."

"You don't agree," came the observation.

Max thought he'd been able to hide his opinion, but it apparently wasn't the case. "It's not beginners who lose control of their Pokémon. It's everyone. One of Phoebe's Pokémon did."

"Phoebe is one of your Elite Four, I remember." Without waiting for Max to confirm or say anything, the man continued. "If you had to guess… What is the cause of it?"

There wasn't that much guessing involved, but Max couldn't tell this Kalos politician – he thought – that. "I think..." he started hesitantly, trying to sound more doubtful than he actually was. "I think it… It has to be something else influencing them, right?" He looked up, but only got a gesture to explain. "It hasn't happened before, and the Pokémon are fine before and after, I think. That means it's probably not something in the Types, or some kind of disease."

"These Types are overrepresented in incidents," the man observed neutrally, echoing an argument Roxanne had made a year ago.

Max dug deep to remember what he'd found out about that. "But for Psychic and Ghost-types, they're all injuries that average Trainers can't deal with, so they need medical help." He paused to formulate an example. "I can take care of light burns or cuts or bruises or even small electrical shocks. But a Pokémon doing something with your head," he said, tapping his temple for good measure, "that's something Nurse Joy needs to look at, just to be safe."

"Speaking from experience?"

The smile set Max at ease a bit. "Back when I caught natu, he tried to use Confusion on me. Danny thought it was better for me to be checked out just in case. Or maybe that was because there was a pair of ursaring..." He'd never really asked, or thought about that. "But Nurse Joy put natu down as the reason me needing to be checked out."

"That would be the xatu that brought you to Geosenge. A fine specimen if he was able to do that from Lumiose, even with Helping Hand."

Max took a step back, tilting his head. That wasn't commonly known. Hell, somehow, their names had only leaked the night before. "You know a lot, sir."

"It is my job." The man held out a hand to shake. "Marcel Lumière, President of Kalos."

Max shook it numbly as he realised he had just talked to the most powerful man in Kalos without so much as an introduction or proper respect. "I… I'm sorry if..."

A simple gesture and smile shut Max up. "Any inadvertent disrespect is more than balanced out by your deeds for Kalos, and your thoughtful answering. Sometimes, we find answers where we're least looking for them." A bell chimed. "I will see you later this evening. For now, please enjoy our greatest hospitality during this dinner."

Greatest hospitality was an understatement, if anything. The food was nothing short of exquisite, while the table he'd been allotted to included Keith, Jane, and Clemont, so he had stuff to talk about as well. The four adults sitting at the other side indulged them, though one of them – a pale woman with jet-black hair – often interrupted when it came to discussing Pokémon. Then again, that was Valerie, the Laverre Gym Leader, and Max wished Keith or Jane had told him that before he nearly made a fool of himself.

Danny, Serena, and Maël were two tables over, as were Professor Sycamore – Max hadn't even seen him before – Wikstrom, and Jean-Luc, in addition to two politicians Max didn't recognise. From what he saw, they were having a good time as well, and Max was slightly surprised to see Danny and Serena both sipping from the glass of wine they'd been offered.

Well, Serena wasn't a surprise. She was Kalosian. Danny, and both Keith and Jane too, went for it as well, leaving Max as the only one to not drink it from the five of them. Luckily, he wasn't the only one at the table who didn't want it – Clemont also preferred water.

Eventually, at a sign Max missed, the entire room fell silent. He looked up from the ruins of his dessert, immediately spotting about two dozen people standing in the middle of the hall. Cameras told Max exactly who they were, though he wondered when they'd been let in. He hadn't noticed any flashes.

President Lumière got up from his own table, which had been at the other side of the gap in the middle of the stage, walking forward to the edge of the elevated area. "Tonight is a special night," he started, speaking in a clear voice, without the help of a microphone. "Tonight, we honour those who defended Kalos and her people. But," he added sharply. "We cannot honour the victorious without remembering those who did not make it. Please, all rise in a moment of silence for those who perished at the hands of Team Flare over the past year."

A projector flared into life as well over a hundred chairs were moved; everyone facing the President. From his position, Max was able to glance at the projection, spotting about twenty names. Some of them had died in Coumarine, others in Geosenge when Team Flare had set buildings on fire, and one had died in Anistar.

He knew it was a low number; far lower than it had any right to be, but at the same time, they were twenty names too many. Twenty lives cut short because some megalomaniac psychopath decided to remake the world in his image. The youngest had been five; the oldest seventy-six. All of them reasons why Lysandre and those who followed him should be thrown in a prison cell without a key.

The minute of silence ended abruptly as an instrumental version of Kalos's national anthem blasted through the room. Most people sang along, Serena included, and when it ended, President Lumière took a few steps forward once again. "There are those who have placed themselves in the service of Kalos; at all times. Please join me in honouring the Kalos Police."

Applause followed, mirrored thrice more as they hailed the International Police, the hospitals and doctors who took care of those wounded after Team Flare attacked, and the Gym Leaders of Cyllage, Shalour, Pyrocorde, Laverre, and Anistar, with Wikstrom thrown in as well. Curiously, Clemont was not included, something that seemed to surprise the Gym Leader himself as well.

"Yes, their service was great," President Lumière resumed, "but there were those whose service we honour most of all. The actions of these nine single-handedly saved more lives than any of us can count. First, let us honour the one who was unable to make it on account of his duties to his own country: Grand Champion Lance, of Kanto and Johto."

The projector sprang into life once again as everyone clapped. "Thank you, President Lumière," Lance greeted from a comfortable-looking room. The natural light coming from behind him told Max it was a recorded message. "It was seemingly pure coincidence that brought me to Kalos that week; an impromptu meeting regarding Kalos and Prudan copying the elite League challenge we have started here in the Home Regions. Yet coincidence does not exist when it comes to matters like these, I feel. Fate decreed that Kalos needed protection from those who would harm it; and I am glad to have been a part of it."

The shot ended with Lance rising from his seat, revealing a ribbon and medal sat on his chest. Max thought the ribbon and half of the medal were green, but the clip cut out too soon. "In recognition for his service to Kalos, he has been granted the Honour of Kalos; with the rank of Chevalier. The same goes for the next person I would like to honour. Perhaps it was coincidence, or perhaps it was fate, as Champion Lance mentioned, that made him look out a window, only to see members of Team Flare erupt from an innocuous café here in Lumiose. The actions that he took were utterly crucial in saving lives, by first leading several others down into the depths of Team Flare's secret base, and then by sending them on while he seemingly sacrificed himself to give them time. I say seemingly, because Team Flare picked the wrong person to go up against. Please join me, Gym Leader Clemont of Lumiose."

Max was one of the last to stop clapping as Clemont walked up, looking a bit shocked. It made Max suspect he hadn't been told, but when the President had put it like that, it made a lot of sense. Clemont's actions allowed for them to go to Geosenge, and that led to the evacuation and basically _everything._ He, like Lance before him, received the Honour of Kalos, Chevalier rank.

The quip that President Lumière made after Clemont walked back, about how he would have the title of youngest ever recipient of that title for about five minutes, caused the entire room to laugh heartily, Clemont included despite the blush.

It continued like that. Lumière had been well-informed, with each following mini-ceremony including personal details or a funny quip. Maël was commended for his quick thinking and tireless service in explaining the dangers of yveltal – something Max hadn't known the teenager had been doing – to foreign reporters in the days following. Keith, blushing furiously, was praised for his defence of the city hall, and his care for Serena and Max when they had been injured. Serena, in turn, received applause when it was revealed that she had been one of the three in Durocor along with her actions in Geosenge, and Max could see her fight off a blush as she walked back; the President remarking that you didn't need to be challenging the Kalos League to be a strong and courageous Trainer and that she would keep the title that had been Clemont's for five minutes, and Keith's for two.

Jane was called out as the daughter of doctors; one who understood sacrifice and service intimately, and as someone who stepped up without hesitation. Danny was next, Max clapping his hands raw as his best friend walked up to accept the award amidst remarks about him being a staunch defender of others, calling out Coumarine, Durocor, Geosenge, and even New Mauville all at once.

As Danny walked back, Max took a deep breath, knowing that he would be next.

"Those who can count to nine know that there are two left," the balding man started. "And as you might expect, we have left those most important to last. The first of these two has been mentioned before. He was injured in Coumarine by a cowardly sneak attack; cared for and protected by his friends. But make no mistake. It was he who stepped forth in Durocor, following the Scientist Xerosic and causing him to only make off with a paltry three Mega Stones as opposed to the entire collection. It was he who had the Pokémon to bring them from Lumiose to Geosenge, and who took the lead in exploring the Geosenge base. It was he who went on when his friends held off Team Flare, finding Lysandre at the end and holding his own long enough for Champion Diantha to intervene."

A breathless pause fell, the entire room hanging on to the President's words, and Max knew what was coming before it did. "And it was he who went with Lance to fight yveltal, guiding one Pokémon of his own and one of Lance's to stop the Legendary. Many would have fled several times over, but he did not. For tireless service to Kalos; for tireless service to _humanity_ , I would like a grand applause for the youngest ever recipient of the Honour of Kalos, Officer rank: Monsieur Max Maple."

It took a gentle push in Max's back for him to start walking amidst a room that was both giving a deafening applause and slightly shocked. He noticed Professor Sycamore, Diantha, Drasna, all standing side-by-side, smiling at him, as he crossed the empty space.

The President was waiting for him, a different medal than the others had been given in his left hand. After the formality of shaking hands, the older man _tied_ the medal around Max's tie, instead of pinning it over his heart.

He barely noticed the now traditional quip – this one about being someone to look out for in the Lumiose Conference coming up – as he walked back numbly. There were tonnes of questions running through his mind, and he itched to ask them of Clemont, or Professor Sycamore, or anyone who would answer, but he couldn't ask them now.

And as Diantha accepted her Officer rank – a promotion from Chevalier, because Elite Four members were that automatically, apparently – one last thing shot into his mind; the realisation almost making him laugh hysterically.

He now knew why his invitation had been adamant he wore a tie.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Forty hours after the ceremony, and about twenty-nine hours after Nurse Joy had forcibly evicted journalists from the Pokémon Center, Max, Danny, and Serena were standing on an abandoned hill to the north of Lumiose; in the badlands of Route 13. The dry air, so different from the city, was also colder, which suited them just fine. "Nobody as far as the eye can see, and nothing except rocks for miles around. Perfect training location," Max declared.

Danny and Serena agreed, the latter already sending out three of her Pokémon. Cherrim had come down with something, and had been left in Nurse Joy's care. "And most importantly, no journalists," Danny said as he placed a small backpack on the ground, already taking several of their items – juggling balls, rings, a blanket – out. "Can't you ask them to shove off?"

"Maybe we should make a deal or something," Max turned to see Serena look at them. "Like, give them an hour to make all the pictures they want, but then don't pester us as much. Though you're probably going to see them follow you anyway," she added.

Max shrugged as he sent two Pokémon out; swinub and espurr appearing. "Could work. Let's ask Professor Sycamore if they'd go for it. He probably has more experience with this."

The others agreed, and they set off to start practising. Sceptile and swampert immediately separated themselves from the group, settling for close combat training. Shelgon waggled over to dusclops for practice on suppressing his dodge reflex – something Danny had suggested after a few times that the Dragon-type had plum fallen over during sparring.

A quarter of an hour later, as all Pokémon had been paired off, Max suddenly realised it was only the second or third time he had actually done a full-on training session while swinub was with him. The small Ice-type hadn't been on his team too much either; first Olympia's warning had made Max just keep a strong selection of Pokémon on his team, and afterwards, he'd only brought the Ground-type out for some training just before challenging Wulfric.

And he had so looked forward to being able to use ice in his battles, too. Coating the field in ice was just so annoying for many Pokémon, as Danny had shown time and time again with froslass. It had been the inspiration for poliwhirl's sliding in wet… Hang on. "Poliwhirl, xatu, that's enough," Max called as he looked around, trying to locate where swinub and helioptile were practising dodging – swinub's immunity allowing Danny's Pokémon to attack with impunity.

He yelled for Danny to think of something for xatu and helioptile to do, and sat down next to swinub; the shaggy-haired Pokémon immediately settling his snout in the palm of his hand. "No food yet, swinub," Max said, amused at the way his Pokémon deflated ever so slightly. Glutton, and completely unrepentant about it, that was swinub. "You can have some after you practice. What I want you to do is to use Icy Wind to freeze small patches of ground, okay? Poliwhirl, you spray the ground with water to help."

Both Pokémon showed their own form of agreement – a bit of nuzzling from swinub, and a quick bump of fists with poliwhirl – and went on to do their thing as Max watched, calling out small corrections from time to time and making mental notes about swinub. The Pig Pokémon wasn't fast when the ground wasn't frozen, but his short-ranged blasts of ice were pretty powerful. They definitely decreased in power hard, though, which probably made him better in close. Max would have to find a way to enable swinub to get in close.

Danny suddenly tapped him on the shoulder. "Everything okay here?" he wondered as poliwhirl tested the strength of a patch of ice by shoulder-checking it. "Doesn't that hurt? It's solid ground underneath, right?"

"She knows her limits far better than I do," Max said as poliwhirl got back up. "You need me for something?"

"Well, you said you had an idea for ferroseed..." Danny replied, the smirk audible. "Gyro Ball's working well, by the way. That's going to be a pretty big help in getting Pokémon off, even if ferroseed aren't as heavy as avalugg are."

"Avalugg outweigh snorlax on average," Max replied drily. "Their Gyro Ball is appropriately more powerful." They started moving, passing by spritzee and klefki taking a bit of a break in between what Max thought was a Fairy Wind-off. "So here's the idea. Ferroseed uses Bullet Seed on espurr, who then tries to deflect it back."

"And ferroseed has to roll out of the way of his own attack. And he can make it as big or small as he wants to," Danny enthusiastically finished for Max. "You're a genius, and I know that's the third time this week." The two called espurr and braixen over, leading them to ferroseed and gulpin, only to see the ground covered in sludge and acid. "Maaaaybe elsewhere?"

Elsewhere was soon found – braixen and gulpin having been sent to Serena for her to figure something out – and the deflection and dodge training soon started.

Espurr was used to deflecting, but usually, she sent attacks sideways, not back, and the nature of the seeds – many, small, high-paced – made it harder for her to do it right. At first, she took more than a few seeds to her belly, but the small Psychic-type was nothing if not a fast learner, and soon, Max – Danny had gone to help Serena – saw her start to get the hang of the precise timing.

Of course, that was when ferroseed started switching things up by sending attacks in varying bursts and sizes, but that was part of the fun. You didn't know what your opponent was going to do, and so training should be unpredictable as well.

He took a few steps back, looking over the training area. Everyone was busy doing something, even if it was just watching someone do something, like shelgon was watching braixen create a Fire Spin. It was good to see everyone at work, and with the Lumiose Conference coming up… It was time to show Kalos what they could do.

How far would they be able to go? Max couldn't speak for Danny, but he himself would be disappointed if it wasn't decently far. They'd learned so much here in Kalos, forced by circumstances to fight in situations that most people never even considered. They had also added and evolved Pokémon on their teams, and unlike last year, both of them had Pokémon that could just slug it out in battle. Then there were the Mega Evolutions – Max felt it was only a matter of time for Danny to get the Aggronite to work – as aces up their sleeve, and… There was no doubt there were more experienced Trainers attending, but if he could surprise them…

Then again... There was little chance of underestimation this time. This was their second League; and they were already known in Kalos for different reasons. Something like the battle that got him to the round of 32 would not happen here. It would have to be hard fighting all the way, desperately vying for the top spot.

And he was ready for it.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Professor Sycamore's greenhouse was starting to become very familiar to Danny. Every evening – except one – since they had arrived in Lumiose after coming back from Gloire City, he'd gone there; a wristband on his arm and a Mega Stone tied to a piece of twine in his pocket. Sometimes, Max and Serena had come along, and sometimes they hadn't. Today, all of them had come down to the laboratory – thankful that walking was an option again after Max had enlisted the Professor to help with the journalists that had been pestering them.

Danny understood _why_ they were so interesting, but that didn't mean he liked it one bit.

The Professor waited for them in his usual spot. "Punctual as usual. Let's see if today is the day."

"Danny did spend a lot of time thinking today," Serena shared as they passed through a familiar carpeted hallway. "Maybe it helped?"

"It looked close yesterday, but there was a last push missing," Professor Sycamore replied, taking keys from his pocket. "Like when you're climbing a wall but you just can't hang on at the top."

"I never had that," Max said, looking curious, eager to learn something new. "Not even the week after Geosenge."

The adult in the greenhouse chuckled. "Well, you break all the rules anyway, _Monsieur_ Max. You skipped steps because you already knew you were capable of Mega Evolving your manectric."

"I don't get it," Serena said. "What's that have to do with it?"

"Think of it this way," Professor Sycamore started as he turned to her. "You knew how to walk before you tore your knee ligaments, but you had to work to be able to walk afterwards. It's similar here: Max knew he could do it, but he needed the right approach first."

"So what does that make Danny in this analogy? The baby learning to walk without its parents help?"

Danny rolled his eyes, making sure Serena could see it, though Max could not. He'd probably figure it out anyway. "I'm going to send aggron out now," he informed the others.

A minute or two later, the twine had been tied around aggron's wrist, and the rest had taken their distance. It wasn't needed – Max had once Mega Evolved manectric as she sat in his lap, and as he sat back to back with Danny himself – but all of them agreed that it felt right to do so, at least for these attempts.

Banishing the memories of failure of the days before from his mind, Danny sat down lotus-style, closing his eyes and concentrating on the aggron standing mere feet away.

Aggron. Some people said they were aggressive, violent, dangerous, but Danny knew better. All aggron did, all aron had done, that first time that they met, was to protect. Protect himself from an unknown human tripping over him; trespassing on _his_ territory. Since then, and especially in Kalos, aggron had taken up that same role. As aron and lairon, he had been tireless in protecting their campsites, and as lairon and aggron, he had been fearless and peerless in protecting them from those who sought to hurt or endanger them. If anyone dared anger him by attacking those he wanted to protect, he showed no mercy or hesitation.

And that was what Danny did. He protected and defended. It came to him naturally, easily, a style of battle that he had slid into, but it went beyond that. The times that Max had been attacked: in the Route 123 Ranger territory; in the Glittering Caves; in Coumarine… Danny had felt the fear and anger that aggron felt whenever that which _he_ loved was threatened, and it had made him realise that protecting wasn't something you just did on and off. It was a path in life; a conviction that must be held.

But it wasn't blanket. It never had been. His desire to protect extended to his friends, his family, his Pokémon, his loved ones. If they would fight, he would. If they would look to attack; he would defend. If they would run; he would hold the rear. He was the shield to their swords, the one who would sacrifice himself if needed. And wherever they struck, he would be to protect them.

A plate of hardened steel settled within him, and he opened his eyes.

Mega aggron was slightly larger than regular aggron, and the spikes on his shoulders had grown larger. He was more heavily armoured; obviously so, with most of the softer plates on his belly and tail now covered by swathes of shiny steel. It was undoubtedly aggron, just… More armoured; more defensive, more _him._

Elation filled Danny, coating the steel, covering it, but not suppressing it. He'd done it. He had actually done it. He walked up to aggron, the Steel-type crouching without needing to be asked, and Danny quickly found one of the spots aggron always liked to be touched – the plates on his arms. One hand went there, while the other ran across the steel, feeling its strength. Even the plates felt different. More solid; like they could withstand even more, and somehow lacking something as well.

Then their eyes met, and Danny felt it. The acceptance, the calm, the absolute certainty that he would protect those he loved with all he had.

Apparently, that protection didn't extend to a torpedo in his back, Danny realised as Max did his utmost best to hug all the breath out of Danny's body. "I knew you could do it!" he said as Danny turned around, the younger boy almost dancing with excitement. "You aren't blind about yourself, I know that, and now you did it!"

Any attempt at trying to be stern at Max having eavesdropped on him was utterly ruined by the happiness he was feeling. "I thought I was alone?"

"I had to pop back for something Keith wanted to see about my medal," Max replied easily. "I can't help it you decided to use the bath to think out loud." He tilted his head. "So, what does it feel like? The bond, I mean."

Danny hadn't seen Max this enthusiastic about, well, _anything,_ in ages. He'd ask himself when it had stopped, but he probably knew the reason for it anyway. "It's… solid. Hard as anything. Unyielding."

"As befits the Steel-type," Professor Sycamore said as he walked up, suddenly holding a box in his hand. "And since you've managed to get this to work the normal way – and I have never heard of someone backsliding, before you say anything – allow me to give this to you."

Even before the lid of the wooden box was removed, Danny knew exactly what it held. It made too much sense not to be. "Can you just give me one? I thought these were rare and expensive."

"Stop looking a gift ponyta in the mouth, Danny, and accept it," Serena said impatiently. "You know you can't share Key Stones with Max forever. What if you both want to use your Mega Evolution, but you're fighting elsewhere? Like having simultaneous matches in the League or something?"

"Or maybe you'll be in different regions entirely," Professor Sycamore added, before something made him chuckle. "Or not. Still, Serena is right. The amount of strings I had to pull is not important. It is yours, and I know you'll use it well."

Danny accepted the box, the Key Stone inside matching Max's nearly perfectly. Except for the part where this one wasn't glowing softly. "One more thing to do now," he said, focusing. There was no need to protect _now,_ no fight to be had.

Steel lifted as aggron shifted back, and Danny saw Max avert his eyes. "Way to show me up. You did it in one try."

As much as Max tried to sound hurt, the moment Danny suddenly grabbed his chin, wresting it up, the truth became known. There was no hurt behind Max's glasses, only the glittering of someone desperately trying with all he could not to grin and laugh, which happened moments after anyway. The laughter set off Danny as well, and it took a minute or two for them to recover. "Was that all, Professor?"

"For you, yes. For Max, no." Danny felt as confused as Max suddenly looked. "A quote from Professor Birch…" The Professor cleared his throat. "Max seems to have forgotten that he has a ninjask. Could you remind him of that when you see him?"

The impression was bad, but the speed at which Max's face went red in shame was impressive. Danny fought off a small blush himself – he had forgotten about ninjask as well – and he reaffirmed his decision to rotate his Pokémon around so that all of them spent at least a week per month with him.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The registration for the Lumiose Conference was easy to find, and even easier to do. Keith had to admit he'd been expecting worse when he'd heard there was only one spot to do it. Then he'd heard it was in the main stadium, and his fears had become worse. Back in May, the roads to there had been terrible, with road works everywhere and a gogoat handler strike making things worse. Now, it literally had been as easy as going there by foot from their Pokémon Center.

Getting the North Boulevard Center had been a good choice. He knew the others preferred the one near Prism Tower for its proximity to the Tower, but they had a xatu to just use anyway.

"All done," the receptionist said, all smiles as she handed the Pokédexes back. "Please be here at nine o'clock in the morning on the second of November for the opening ceremony."

Keith handed Jane her Pokédex back. "That's fun. Getting up early on your birthday," he said as they walked away. "And maybe having to battle too."

"We knew that. That's why you made a reservation for the night before," Jane replied softly, causing Keith to stop and gawk. "You left the note with the time on the desk. It's sweet of you." She took his hand. "Knew there was a reason I took you as my boyfriend."

"I asked you," Keith protested half-heartedly as he started looking for a gogoat handler. There weren't any nearby.

Jane giggled. "So? Doesn't mean I didn't take you." She gave him a quick peck. "Best decision of my life, I think." She, too, scouted for a handler and didn't find one either. "Walk to the Center?"

Keith shrugged, even as he looked left and right to safely cross the street. "Sure. Gogoat's faster, but not like we have anything to do right now."

Neither of them let go of the other's hand as they walked slowly and in silence. Occasionally, they turned to each other, sharing a smile. A few others on the streets gave them weird looks, but they didn't care. The funniest happened close to the Center, when a boy with a chespin by his side crossed the street. He nearly bumped into Keith, and would have if it hadn't been for the small Grass-type. He stopped just in time, and his eyes went wide when they fell on the entwined hands between the two teenagers.

Then Jane gave Keith another quick peck, and he had to bite his tongue to not laugh at the boy's face: wide eyes, red as a tomato. The chespin tugging on his Trainer's trouser leg and wondering what was happening made it even better, too. "You are an evil young lady," Keith said as snobbishly as he could, once the boy was out of hearing. "Corrupting children with public displays like that."

"So? Nothing he hasn't seen his parents do. Or friends. Nearly half our class had boyfriends or girlfriends, remember?" Jane said, and Keith knew what was coming. "In fact, didn't you..."

"Yes. Fiona," Keith finished. He didn't really want to talk about that. "Never did more than hold hands and play."

"Relax, silly. I'm not going to bite you for an old girlfriend." The Pokémon Center came into view, and Jane suddenly laughed, causing Keith to give her a weird look. "I was just thinking. The five year reunion. Everyone says they did normal stuff. A League here, a Grand Festival there," she said, making the etcetera motion with her free hand. "Then we get in."

Oh, Keith _liked_ where that was going. A bit of showing off was fun. "We should totally wear our medals for that. I bet we'd have done more than everyone except two others."

Jane nodded. "Well, one of them's going to show up with a League trophy, so… That's not really a contest. But as Mum always says… Everyone has a place in the world, a role in its order." She pulled on his hand, causing him to look at her. "And I'm perfectly fine with them being ahead of us."

Knowing what he did about Danny and Max, even the stuff that he wasn't certain about, like that Max's ralts was probably dead… And the amount of work they put in? Keith couldn't agree more. They deserved it.

 **~~§~~§~~**

May had told him in her last letter that she'd been considering changing her hair away from the style she'd had before the Slateport Festival had cost her most of her hair, but Max hadn't expected her to do it this fast. "Evening, sis. Didn't think you'd go for the new look now. It's different."

The fifteen year old girl – closing in on sixteen, not that Max thought she was anywhere near that mature mentally – scoffed, adjusting her high ponytail. "Coming from someone who's had the same hairstyle for literal years. Why do I listen to you again?"

"Because I'm your smarter brother."

"Because you're my _younger_ brother," May replied, before shaking her head. Max thought he saw her hide a smile. "You made the news here, you know. Dad has had to deal with journalists all week."

Max did know that. "Everyone has, even Keith's mother. Dad's only got it worse because of me."

"Turns out saving the world has a few small downsides," May drawled sarcastically, to Max's surprise. It was the kind of thing he would say, and he hadn't thought his sister would. "You'll have to tell me the full story. Including how you used manectric to attack yveltal. She's not that good yet."

"Or you could watch me use her. All the matches are going to be viewable online, they said," Max replied. "And no, May, I'm not planning on getting knocked out in the first round. That'd be embarrassing."

May smirked. "Defender of Kalos knocked out in first round by no-name Trainer. Yeah, that's a nice headline." She giggled, and Max knew his attempt at a glare was ruined entirely by the amusement he felt. "Honestly Max, after all the practice you've probably put in… You can teach me a few things about battling and training Pokémon up, and I know I managed to beat a few round of 64 Trainers in the last month."

"Where'd you find those?"

"Tournaments," was May's smug reply. "You're not the only Maple who likes them, and I was sort of bored after getting my fifth Ribbon. Just went from tournament to tournament on my way to Slateport."

Max couldn't shake the feeling there was a bit more to it – maybe something to do with the Slateport Festival still – but he wasn't going to bug her about it. It was her time anyway. "Did you win something?"

"Some money, a coupon for a week in a luxury resort that I'll be using the second week of December." May shrugged lazily. "It was a fun distraction from all the Contests. Maybe it'll help with finally winning."

"What time you up tomorrow? Early? Late?"

A crash on May's side caused her to look to the left, before spreading her hands in confusion. "Pretty early, I think. Some time you wouldn't even watch me even if it was available online or on TV. Eight hour difference, right?" Max nodded quickly. "Yeah, I'm up around lunch. Exactly," she added when Max made a face.

Max liked watching his sister do Contests, but he wasn't getting up at four-whatever in the morning for it. "I'll watch the recap, so be good and get in it, okay?"

"Oh, right. A League that doesn't start the first of the month." May sounded a tiny bit exasperated, for some reason. "I keep forgetting that. All the Home Regions have it from the first. Why doesn't Kalos?"

Max had wondered about the same, but unlike his sister, he had access to Kalosians who could answer it. "They want to end on the second Sunday of the month. Have the last four matches be at times everyone can watch. Then they fill in the rest of the schedule." He put a hand on his chin. "Wonder how they'd do that if the month starts on Sunday… They really need the first Saturday…"

May chuckled heartily, causing Max to look back up. "Anyway, little brother, it's nearly ten here, and I need my sleep. Good luck in the Kalos League!"

"Good luck at the Grand Festival!" Max returned, and then the screen went to black.

Time to find Danny and train some more.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _The November edition of the Lumiose Conference is upon us. Just over 130 Trainers signed up before the deadline closed at noon on October 31_ _st_ _, roughly matching the May edition. The format remains unchanged from the previous seven editions: three-on-three until the semi finals, which are Full Battles along with the final and the match for third place. Roughly half of the matches in the first two rounds will take place at the old Stade Olympique in Lumiose, but all matches from the round of 32 onwards are in Lumiose Stadium. All matches from the Stade Olympique will be broadcast on our secondary channel._

 _T_ _he full list of participants will not be released until two hours before the tournament starts on November 2_ _nd_ _,_ _but_ _several Trainers who could be participants have been spotted around Lumiose. These include a former finalist in the Prudan League a year back; two Trainers – one from Sinnoh, one from Kalos – with a two-tournament streak of quarter final results; four of the five teenagers involved in stopping Team Flare in September,_ _and the Kalos League report_ _ed_ _a staggering fifty-three first-time League challengers._ _All of these things are ingredients for a wonderful tournament, and we at Lumiose TV cannot wait to show you every moment of it._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** The Honour of Kalos is loosely based on the French _Ordre national du Mérite_ , with a few changes here and there. It's one of the things I like about XY: there's actual mention of you doing the saving-the-region thing beyond throw-away lines.

Teenagers drinking wine at dinner isn't too uncommon in France, though Max missed that memo.

Next up, several chapters of the Lumiose Conference. Strap yourself in, it's going to be a ride.


	36. Opening Ambushes

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 3** **6: Opening Ambushes**

It wasn't something Max was about to say in a stadium full of Kalosians, but the opening ceremony for the Lumiose Conference had been completely boring. Some kind of release of a flock of fletchling and Diantha saying a few words? Even Serena looked a bit disappointed a few seats down, but Max would have to ask her about it later.

The stadium was as high-tech as the opening was boring, though. It felt futuristic, what with all the hexagons, the metallic blue-purple, and the battlefield just rising up from underneath the ground. It was a huge contrast to the old-fashioned Stade Olympique across town, and while that was okay, Max was looking forward to making it here.

Max, Danny, and Serena left after the first battle was over – a decently close fight between two first-time participants from Kalos, heading to the lobby in the front. Danny and Jane were up in the early afternoon, while Keith and he were up tomorrow, with Max the only one who had to go across town for his battle. There was some time to just relax and have an early lunch before Danny's match against a very familiar opponent.

Speaking of the opponent… Max saw the boy trying to sneak up to them, but the boy and his kirlia abandoned their sneaking when they saw Max looking at them. "Congratulations on evolving, kirlia," Max said as they walked into hearing range. He heard Danny's shoe squeak as the older teen whirled around. "Yeah, your opponent is here."

"Can't believe I'm up against someone I know. In the first round, too!" Hugo's voice was as high as it had been before, and he had lost none of his enthusiasm either. He had grown visibly, though. "And one… Grand-mère, over here!" he interrupted himself, waving as kirlia levitated him up a few feet. "I can't believe it was _you_ who did all that in Geosenge. Weren't you scared?"

"Of course they were," came a voice that tickled Max's memory somewhere, and he turned to find an old woman that he had definitely seen before. "You can't be in yveltal's presence and not feel fear." She smiled at them, and at Max in particular. "I did not realise that the one Hugo was so enthusiastic about was you until he told me after seeing the photographs of the award ceremony."

"Wait up," Serena said, stopping Max from speaking up. "Does that mean you know Maël, Hugo? Is he like your brother?"

Hugo shook his head, red hair flopping to and fro. "Cousin. His parents are my aunt and uncle." The pre-teen from Shalour – who had gotten eight badges in under eight months, Max realised – shot a strange look Max's way. "Hey, guess what Pokémon I traded for last month."

"I thought vulpix weren't native to Kalos?" Max asked as Hugo took a custom pokéball – a Cherish motif, he thought – from his belt. "What did you trade for… her?"

A light erupted into Hugo's arms, an obviously young vulpix yawning cutely. "Him, actually. I had a murkrow, but… It didn't work. She and kirlia didn't get on at all." Left unsaid was that _that_ was completely unacceptable to the boy, not that Max would disagree. "But a Breeder in Pyrocorde was looking for a murkrow and was willing to give me an Egg for it. I asked, and they had one, so..."

Max walked up, offering his hand to the vulpix to sniff. The fox accepted him a moment after, giving the palm of his hand a little lick. "My vulpix isn't here, or I'd send her out." Hugo's Pokémon's ears pricked up. "Yes, I have one. Would you like to meet her later?"

Judging by vulpix jumping ship into Max's arms, he rather thought the answer was yes.

Some time later, when Danny and Hugo had both already left to get ready, Max, Serena, and Hugo's grandmother were finishing a simple lunch in one of the stadium's food courts. "I must admit," the grey-haired woman suddenly said as she put her glass down. "It normally takes longer for my grandchildren to take to their ralts. You must have made an impression in a very short time on that beach."

"Take longer? What do you mean?" Serena asked.

"All of my grandchildren – Hugo is the youngest of four, and Maël has a younger sister – all came to visit me after they started. Hugo was the only one who kept her out most of the time, and who treated her like a friend from the start." A hidden movement sent a gardevoir out, Max and the Pokémon exchanging nods. "Trained ralts and kirlia _thrive_ on positive human contact. All of my other grandchildren only realised that later." She fixed Max with a look. "Your thoughts, _Monsieur?_ "

Max wasn't sure Hugo's grandmother was reprimanding or teasing him. "I just told him that if he cared for her, he'd have a friend for a lifetime." He focused on the gardevoir. "It's hard to tell, but… That gardevoir has been with you since you were my age, right?"

A sudden sensation of surprise flashed through him, foreign, gone as soon as it appeared. "Your intuition is right. We have been together since I was your age." The woman sounded content with that, unsurprisingly. "But it still took me a time to realise that which you made Hugo realise."

"Why didn't you just tell them?"

"My dear," Hugo's grandmother addressed Serena kindly. "In my generation, we had to find out a lot ourselves. I've tried to pass that on to my children and grandchildren, only giving them hints instead of answers. How can you learn when everything is gifted to you?" She shifted in her seat, turning to Max. "But somehow, you proved me wrong. Could you tell an old woman your secret?"

There wasn't anything secret about it, if Max was honest with himself. "I asked him to care for ralts. Hugo promised to..." He stopped himself at a satisfied cry from the gardevoir. "Excuse me?"

"Promises are important to ralts and its evolutions," came the explanation, the words soft, but intense. "He promised of his own accord?" Max nodded slowly. "And his ralts kept him to it. Not that my grandson minded, I presume."

Max didn't think so either.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Being one of the Trainers battling was something else. Not because it was a League or anything, but because he hadn't a clue of how many people were actually watching, cheering for him as he entered. He recognised the dampening barriers, but even through it, he could feel the energy of the crowd, of literal thousands of people watching right there, and the stadium wasn't even full.

He hoped Hugo wouldn't be too intimidated. They'd skipped the traditional separate preparation, instead spending the time before the match telling each other travel stories and occasionally trying to sneak a preview of the Pokémon the other was going to use. It was actually quite fun to rib each other like that.

He adjusted the microphone as he stepped onto the metal Trainer's box, floating above a gap of nothingness. The battlefield would soon come up, but for a moment, Danny gazed down into black, stepping back when he felt the pangs of vertigo start.

The field was nothing like he'd ever seen before. It was mostly flat, covered with black and grey both. Ash, he noticed a moment later. Volcano field? Cool. There were things he could do with that.

He touched a hand to his new necklace, ever so slightly jostling the triangular pendant at its end as it rested against his breastbone. He probably wasn't going to use that, but he had the option, and it felt good to keep the Key Stone on him at all times.

A signal lit up overhead, telling both Trainers to select their first Pokémon. Danny thought for a second before going for klefki, holding the ball up and seeing Hugo do the same at the other end.

This was going to take a while, he realised as he saw Hugo's roselia appear on the ground, sending up a small puff of ash. Steel was resilient to Grass and outright immune to Poison, but roselia resisted Fairy and they were deceptively nimble on their feet, making the narrow beam of Mirror Shot a tricky thing to use and he couldn't send Spikes flying at it.

Roselia opened with a long-ranged barrage of Leech Seed; the draining pods crossing the distance fast and forcing a Protect as an opening move from klefki, and in that time, Hugo's Pokémon sent up a quartet of Sunny Day orbs.

Danny didn't know if roselia could learn Weather Ball. "Scatter Spikes around," he spoke into his microphone, seeing klefki already move after the first word. The Steel-type started spinning, spreading the attack over a wide area, puffs of ash thrown up wherever the caltrops landed.

Then he decided to stop, dropping down to the ground to dodge a Solar Beam. It was narrow, focused, breaking apart in a glittering display on the shields, and the follow-up was a quick Magical Leaf.

Klefki saw an opening, taking the attack in exchange for a Mirror Shot that shot between the circling petals, hitting roselia as it jumped up – well anticipated. "Closer in, more Spikes."

More caltrops buried themselves in the soft soil, but in doing so, klefki was just too slow to dodge a second Solar Beam. Light enveloped him, but he soon emerged from it, looking fairly unscathed, as far as Danny could see. _Too_ unscathed. Was roselia deliberately hol…

Oh, that was it. It was sacrificing power for speed, and hoping Danny would fall for it by ordering heavy-handed responses to attacks that didn't need them. "Protect from Leech Seeds only," he ordered klefki, just as the Steel-type did exactly that; green energy blocking green seeds.

Roselia started moving for the first time now, using small hops to do so. It only went sideways from where it had started, because forwards was a field of caltrops, and after every few hops, it would launch an attack – Magical Leaf, Leech Seed, Magical Leaf, Leech Seed, Leech Seed, cleverly – but Danny wasn't worried about klefki being hit, or hitting back. Fairy Winds blew back the Magical Leaves and the last barrage of Leech Seeds, while Protect took care of the rest.

Danny's Pokémon didn't even need to move while doing that. He was an easier target for it, but dodging Magical Leaves was annoying. Better to save the energy.

Meanwhile, Danny had been looking at roselia's movement as carefully as he could from a distance. "It attacks every four hops," he said after the seventh attack in total. "Mirror Shot."

One, two, three, bingo. Roselia did its thing, but klefki had seen the same thing Danny had, and had probably studied the movement pattern a lot better to boot. The Mirror Shot hit the small Pokémon somewhere on its lower half, sending it tumbling through the air, ash thrown up as it landed. "Don't!" Danny countermanded klefki instantly, knowing his Pokémon was ready to slam himself into the fallen opponent. "Keep distance. No need to force something."

The faint yellow sheen to the ashes – though it could be the lighting – made Danny suspect he had been right. A Stun Spore was an instinctual reaction for many Grass-types, and roselia probably weren't different. The Thorn Pokémon got up, launching a thinner-looking Magical Leaf, and a Fairy Wind dispersed it without any trouble.

Then more of the same Magical Leaves came, perhaps a bit more powerful, but it was suspicious because it was different from the pattern it had used before. "It's hiding something."

Suddenly, klefki shot forward, enveloping itself in a Protect to power through a barrage of Leech Seeds and diving low to the ground. Ash shot up behind him, blocking Danny's sight of both Pokémon.

And then a Solar Beam shot through the middle of the arena, scattered by something, but still powerful enough to throw up ash and caltrops alike. It petered out before it could reach Danny, but he couldn't see anything of what was going on at the other end.

A buzz in his ear announced a referee call. "Roselia is knocked out."

He had no idea how it had happened – though he thought he understood what roselia had done: using one rose to gather sunlight for a Solar Beam while trying to take advantage of klefki's defensive position. Still, there was no reason to complain, especially after he saw klefki look scratched, but nothing more; the Key Pokémon having made his way over to Danny's side of the arena.

Hugo's second Pokémon was cause for Danny to check if the Sunny Day was still in effect, and he resisted the urge to groan when he saw that two of the orbs were still burning bright in the sky. Fletchinder resisted literally everything klefki knew at range, and even plain old tackling it would be risky: the Fire-type could raise its body temperature to heights that would leave a burn on steel.

There was always the option of swampert or helioptile, or even diggersby, who would have a field day with the soft soil, but all of them did have to contend with the caltrops klefki had so liberally spread earlier. He was certain Max was having a good laugh at his expense right about now.

Well, swampert could ignore it, but he didn't really want to use swampert or aggron against Hugo. He wanted a good battle for both of them, and not some massacre.

Klefki would have to do. Maybe he could trick the fletchinder into crashing into the ground.

Flame Charge was an obvious opener, and a fireball streaked through the sky, heading straight for klefki. When Danny's Pokémon dove lower to get closer to the ground, fletchinder followed without hesitation. It missed klefki by a foot or two, instantly changing into a vertical climb before a quick u-turn sent it plummeting back down at the Steel-type.

The miss was too rehearsed, Danny felt. "Careful," he warned, even as klefki threw up a Protect to shield itself from the flames.

Fletchinder itself wasn't hit, and with a lurch that almost defied physics, it wheeled around to deliver a fiery tackle to the keychain. Klefki sailed through the sky, unable to stop himself before fletchinder sped onto him again with more fire, and another hit that batted klefki away. "Protect as soon as you can!"

That turned out to be when fletchinder next came knocking, and it bounced away on the shield, some of the energy bleeding through, pushing klefki back as well. Danny's Pokémon immediately started spinning, releasing more spikes and forcing Hugo's Pokémon to go up before it could attack klefki, or risk being hit by sharp things.

A Mirror Shot missed, fletchinder dodging out of the way when it didn't need to. The reason for klefki's poor aim became clear immediately after as as an explosion rocked the air above both Pokémon, eliminating the last orb of sunlight and powering fletchinder's Fire-type moves down further.

It was worth nothing if klefki kept getting hit, though. He really needed to practice with Max's ninjask more. "Go low and use Fairy Wind down."

The attack worked as Danny wanted, throwing up an improvised smokescreen that forced fletchinder to back off before rearing up in a Gust.

And the moment it unleashed the winds, klefki took advantage of his opponent finally staying still for a second, with a Mirror Shot that hit it straight on the wing. It fell maybe fifteen feet, saving it from a second Mirror Shot, and immediately started moving again. It went higher first, but then dove low by the ground, igniting into flames again as ash flew up in the wake of its path.

Klefki tried to dodge, but sheer speed sent him spinning. He Protected a second fly-by, but this time, fletchinder was wise to the trick, going up and over before turning tightly and slamming into the Steel-type from above, sending him into the ash.

And then nothing happened for thirty seconds. Visibly, anyway. Most of the area was black with ash and soot blocking any look in. Danny was fairly certain klefki had been knocked out, though: with fletchinder being as fast as it was and the double Sunny Day-boosted hits earlier… If klefki wasn't knocked out, he was weak enough to not do anything visible up close.

"Klefki and fletchinder are both unable to battle."

Wait, what?

He looked up at one of the big screens, hoping the camera could give him more information. It did, showing him a twitching Fire-type that, while conscious, was delirious with pain as one of the many Spikes had somehow pierced its wing. Danny bit his teeth, barely keeping in a hiss of sympathetic pain, and he resolved to apologise to Hugo the moment he could. This was just unfair.

But it was how battles went. Sometimes, luck was on your side.

Danny was certain he knew what Hugo's third Pokémon would be, and he took a moment to think about what he wanted to send up against the kirlia. Swampert and aggron were still too much, and helioptile probably wouldn't work too well, what with the Spikes…

Masquerain would avoid those if he didn't bodily tackle the kirlia the same way fletchinder had done to klefki, and he could stay far enough away that kirlia making a psychic grab was avoidable.

Twenty seconds later, after the match had resumed, Danny was suddenly very glad for that distance, yet also annoyed with himself for not thinking this through more. Kirlia had immediately flared a Psychic aura, drawing ash and spikes into a loose formation several feet away from her, before launching the gathered materials. She sent everything at masquerain with sufficient velocity and psionic guidance that the ash only dwindled away halfway through. The spikes defied gravity, and Danny's small Bug-type had to make a quick dodge left and down to avoid the same fate as fletchinder.

Masquerain tried to whip up ash to block sight, but after he had done so, a second barrage of spikes flew his way, more scattershot this time. It forced a Protect, which disintegrated a few of the spikes while the rest missed naturally. "She can sense you,' Danny warned. "Just dodge. Spikes are limited."

The very last barrage scored a glancing hit, masquerain dropping a few feet in surprise, but nothing too serious. Then, as Danny snapped his eyes back to kirlia to see what she was up to, the Psychic-type vanished. "Behind you!" Danny immediately shouted, not waiting to locate her. There was only one place that made sense for her to go to. "Gust!"

Spikes struggled to make their way through a wall of wind, eventually losing out, but kirlia managed to get out of the way of the Gust before it hit her, reappearing closer to Danny and immediately gathering more of the caltrops.

Only for her to scatter them throughout the arena and vanish the moment after, reappearing elsewhere and pelting masquerain with a couple of projectiles. Danny's Pokémon had to dive low to the ground to avoid it, unable to react before the kirlia Teleported elsewhere.

He needed to break the pattern kirlia had fallen into, but he couldn't just order masquerain up close. That'd end up badly. "Defend and dodge for now."

It took at least two minutes – masquerain avoiding most of the attacks and occasionally using Gust to little or no effect – for Danny to realise that there wasn't any pattern he could exploit, and though kirlia was slowly becoming weaker, he would really like to not lose masquerain.

Max would never let him hear the end of it.

"Up high, and the most powerful Stun Spore you can manage."

The blue Bug-type flew upwards, not quite out of kirlia's range, and gathered the paralytic spores on his wings, focusing on spreading them across the wide area.

But Danny didn't wait for them to slowly sink down. "Gust them!"

The kirlia called forth a psionic shield – a barrier to burn all the spores coming near her, and not Protect – to defend herself, and it was just the opening Danny thought he needed. With a swift hand motion and a snapped order, he told masquerain to dive in.

The Bug-type let loose one last powerful flap of its wings before diving into the winds he had created himself, enveloping himself in a Quick Attack and heading straight for the kirlia.

Hugo's Pokémon reshaped the shield into a powerful grab as kirlia dug into the ground with her feet, but that was what Danny wanted. Masquerain had too much momentum to be stopped by Psychic energy, and though he lost a lot of speed, he still crashed into the kirlia, sending ash up and obscuring everything. "Don't let up!"

Spores mingled with ash as masquerain tried to unleash a Stun Spore while grappling with the kirlia, but the Emotion Pokémon Teleported out anyway, to a position straight in front of Danny. She was heaving, but clearly having fun as well. She sent a Disarming Voice forth, masquerain barely flying over it before trying for a Quick Attack.

And then he dropped the Quick Attack, instead going for a Bubblebeam as kirlia Teleported twenty feet to her right.

And for some strange reason, she wavered too long for either a Teleport or a block, though something psionic danced on her skin. The Water-type attack wasn't a full-on hit, but it was close enough to knock kirlia off her feet, and into the soft soil.

A look at his masquerain revealed more. He was struggling with what looked like the onset of Stun Spore paralysis, but Danny knew the Eyeball Pokémon was more careful than that. He hadn't inhaled spores in forever, and being able to produce them gave a certain tolerance as well.

But some kirlia had the Synchronise Ability, which would cause paralysis and the like to be mirrored on a nearby target. If Hugo's kirlia had that… "Fight through it. Bubblebeam!"

It was an undeserved end to the battle. Kirlia tried to muster energy, but it fell apart as she twitched and fell over, her legs giving out under her. Bubblebeam hit, kirlia had a short flight that ended in an ashen landing, and did not get back up, giving Danny the win.

Arceus, that had been far more challenging than he had anticipated. Perhaps picking masquerain had been a mistake, but that was on him, and not on his Pokémon. The blue Pokémon, looking tired to the point that he couldn't even look satisfied, landed on it. "You made the best out of a bad match-up," he said softly, seeing the bug perk up at the praise. "Take a long rest. You earned it fair and square."

He returned his Pokémon, took his microphone off, and proceeded to wave all the way until he was in the catacombs proper, at which point he dropped his arm, rolling his shoulder before striking a right. He had an apology to make.

Hugo was a bit faster in walking, already waiting at the agreed-on point, leaning against a pillar with folded arms and a laid-back posture. The boy's attempt at looking cool was completely ruined by the boyish grin on his face – and by the cheerful exclamation when he saw Danny. "That was awesome!"

That was… not what Danny had expected. "Not upset about fletchinder then?"

Hugo's smile turned into a frown, just for a few seconds. "It was the risk I took for flying so close to the ground with that many Spikes… It's not fun, but..." He shrugged with one shoulder; the other still leaning against the pillar. The frown went back to a grin. "'sides, kirlia used those Spikes as well."

Had she ever. Danny still wasn't sure how masquerain hadn't suffered the same fate as fletchinder had. "I noticed," he said, trying for deadpan and hoping to amuse his opponent. It worked, and a weight that had already been lifted in part finally left him. He turned left. "That kirlia… I think I know now how annoying Max would have been with one. That was a great show."

"We've been focusing on overwhelming," Hugo said as he produced a pokéball. He didn't open it. "I… I don't know if it is the right thing, but kirlia's a bit weak defensively."

"You could ask Max. He's got a style that's a lot more like yours." Though Danny had to admit Hugo was more all-out offense to Max's more tactical approach. "I hope I selected the right Pokémon for you. Didn't want to just have you go up against aggron and be able to do nothing."

"One Steel-type was enough," Hugo told him as they started walking up some stairs. Danny quickly checked the section, confirming they were heading towards where Max, Serena, and Hugo's grandmother had said they would be sitting. "Klefki felt stronger than masquerain. Why'd you send it out first?"

"Because he's safe. Klefki resist lots of types. Fire isn't one of them." He grinned at Hugo, who returned it before swiping red hair away from his eyes. "Besides, you had a plan with that roselia. What was it?"

Hugo waited for them to pass through an automatic door. "She knows Toxic," he said. "Hoped I could get it on your Pokémon."

Danny could understand why he'd go for that kind of gambit, but he didn't reply as they exited into the stadium itself. A quick look around located Serena – or rather, her hat – and they sat down to enjoy the rest of the battles.

Perhaps he should try to get Hugo to help them with training this week. It'd give the younger boy something to do.

 **~~§~~§~~**

After he had watched the youngest Maple direct his Pokémon through two Pokémon of his second round opponent, Gary Oak was impressed. Scratch that. Very impressed. He had been older when he had gone up against Ash in his last formal Pokémon League, instead switching to research and individual tournaments, and there was no way the him back then could have pulled off the poise and general collectedness the boy was broadcasting with every sparse command.

Whatever Pokémon he had beyond manectric, the youngest Oak didn't know nor care about. When the ninjask had come out, Gary had assumed it would lead to a battle straight from Ash's playbook – hit fast, be daring, unconventional angles that shouldn't work except for some infernal lucky charm Ash had probably ingested at some point during his childhood. Just as an apprentice copied his master, so would the younger copy his idol, probably.

There were hints of that, but mostly, the teenager was using ninjask far more tactically, looking to entice his opponent into making mistakes. The boy opposite him – one of the first-timers, Gary hadn't cared to learn the name of someone irrelevant like that – eagerly accepted the bait, following a ninjask into the sky with a wingull. Water and Ice both shot across the air as the ninjask expended minimum energy for maximum effort, occasionally passing so close-by that frost should have formed on the tips of its wings.

The one time ninjask had been hit with a full-on Ice Beam, Max had barely blinked an eye. Gary had seen far too many Trainers recoil when their Pokémon were hit – up to beyond Max's age – but rarely had he seen someone this stoic. A two-word order – "speed up" – was the reply, and from there, ninjask took the fight in both pincers.

The wingull fainted without getting another attack on target. Decisive.

And when the opponent sent out a nosepass, which was usually a sign for any Trainer to switch out, Max kept ninjask in. That was Ash's signature, to scoff in the face of type advantage, but this was different. A simple order was uttered, one that Gary did not understand, but could intuit the meaning of. "Like aron," obviously meant that there was an aron on his team or maybe on the Birch boy's team, and that they had strategies to deal with it.

Ninjask only fell because Max didn't feel the need to switch, but the lack of surprise and the instant sending out of a swinub told Gary all he needed to know.

The teen knew full-well that he was better, and that he didn't need to show more than needed.

Swinub took out the nosepass in a two-hit combination of Dig and some Ice-type move, again sticking to the minimalist approach that showed nothing anyone with a quarter brain didn't already know, and his opponent asked for – and received – a time-out.

Ridiculous, that, but apparently Kalosians were a whiny bunch who needed breaks even in simple three-on-threes.

The big screens in the four corners of the old stadium showed a split screen focus between the two opponents – Max looked calm and collected, while his opponent was visibly trying to get his nerves back under control. He'd started nervous, too, probably from sheer reputation. Bad form, that.

An arbok wasn't the best choice, but it could poison and strike fast. Good length on it, probably a family Pokémon passed down, but there was no way it could knock out two Pokémon. The skill the boy had portrayed up until now was at least three steps too slow and arbok were easy to exploit with the right Pokémon.

The first attack was Mist, causing shimmering cold air to obscure most of the field, to vocal disagreement of people next to Gary. He sent them a withering glare before looking back down at the field. Swinub – who was already hard to see between the grassy field and the height at which they sat – had vanished completely, either underground or into the Mist. Underground was the obvious option, given the cover didn't extend to arbok.

He hadn't known arbok could learn Bulldoze. The boy looked triumphant, certain he had caught the swinub out, but there was no reaction at all from the other end.

Except for a pair of words. "Take Down."

The Pig Pokémon rushed in, faster than it had any right to be, and arbok leapt into the air to avoid the attack, but that was too obvious. Swinub adjusted its path, leaving the Take Down and snorting upwards, a short blast of ice catching arbok's tail and changing the snake's trajectory just enough for the landing to be awkward.

Better Pokémon could have recovered, but this one didn't. It was a mistake swinub ruthlessly exploited, spinning on its axis to send dirt and mud and grass flying in all directions, including arbok, who coiled in on itself, using its hood as cover against the Mud Slap. Of course, that was defending, and not countering, which was generally bad in a battle – though he had seen a few Trainers use those styles effectively. Boring, in his opinion, but definitely efficient at lower levels. Probably less-so once they started reaching later stages, but it was perfectly acceptable for now.

Not for the arbok, though. Swinub immediately closed the gap, and instead of lashing out with its tail – which would have been tricky, but doable – the arbok turned to use Poison Stings. Bad decision, and the stings didn't make it through a blast of Icy Wind cold. Swinub finished by Digging into the ground, coming back up behind the arbok before a Bulldoze could force it up.

Gary stood up. There was nothing to be seen any longer. If the arbok was the starter, the boy hadn't trained it for independent action all that well. Pathetic, and to be expected at this stage. The first few rounds of any League-style tournament were to separate the hobbyists, the babies, and the one-trick ponyta from those who actually possessed a modicum of skill. No matter if the tournament was the size of this one or of the bigger ones in the Home Regions. These things never changed.

Gary made his way over to the catacombs, but found himself stopped by a pair of security guards. "You are not allowed past this point," the left one – brain, to the other's brawn, relatively speaking – told him. "No entry to non-participants."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Gary replied, waving a hand that drew both of their gazes. Idiots. "I need to talk to one of the boys who just finished. Maple's the name. Tell him there's an Oak waiting for him."

"We are not..."

"Yes, yes, you're not to leave this position. Here's the deal. I stay here and guard this place from whatever pitiful remnants of Team Flare would attack the off-stadium instead of several better targets in Lumiose. You go collect Maple. Both of us happy." To demonstrate his willingness, Gary walked up to the last corner he had turned, priming one of his pokéballs in an exaggeratedly obvious manner.

The attempt at whispering would have been amusing had it been a pair of five year old boys instead of two grown men. As it were, Gary heard every word from twenty feet away, and the call that it would happen was superfluous to an extreme.

Seven minutes on a clock later, the heavy-set footsteps of the guard announced his return. Gary turned around to see Max come into view, the bespectacled teenager immediately taking him in. Recognition dawned a moment later, and Gary gestured for him to follow.

"Should have known it was you," Max remarked as he turned the corner to find Gary waiting for him. A brief exhale through the nose revealed some amusement. "Your grandfather wouldn't use the indefinite article, Gary Oak."

"No, Gramps wouldn't," Gary agreed as they resumed walking. "He also would have waited for you elsewhere. Not his style. Congratulations on the win, by the way."

The corner of his eyesight revealed a shrug. "It was a good attempt by Victor, but he really should have switched to nosepass before wingull was knocked out. Too much reliance on thinking Ice Beam was going to cut it. Could have made it easier for myself if I switched ninjask out, but it's been a while since he fought a Rock-type of that size."

"You mentioned an aron."

"Danny's aggron," Max replied, and Gary remembered the name from a call with Gramps after he had arrived three days prior. "Hasn't been an aron since January and ninjask always had trouble, but the strategy is the same."

"Ninjask lost."

"And swinub cleaned up. It's good practice. Just sending sceptile in to waltz over all of Victor's Pokémon felt like bad form and it wouldn't help me improve." They reached one of the entrance lobbies. "I have a feeling I know what you want to talk about."

Ah, competence and intelligence. Traits few had in conjunction. Ash was certainly borderline on the latter, though he made up for it. "Let's leave _that_ for later. Gives me time to formulate research questions." They exited the building, walking into brisk November air, and Gary tapped the primed pokéball again, releasing his alakazam. "Let's get to know each other first. The Trainer way."

A good half hour later, in some badlands Max had told him were north of where they'd been – after basically demanding that they fight there, and not in Lumiose – Gary returned his unconscious umbreon, saluting Max with his other hand. _That_ had been a battle he could get behind, and it hadn't even included the Mega manectric. Two wins on each side, his first loss coming from stupidly underestimating a baltoy and the second from the starter sceptile.

"Thanks for not using blastoise," the teen said as he came into hearing range, wiping his brow. "Don't think anything but manectric could stand up to him."

"He probably could," Gary said, throwing a thumb in sceptile's direction. "If he's good at avoiding Blizzards. Megas aren't unbeatable, just very powerful." So powerful that he had doubts alakazam could contain the attacks with shields. The Psychic-type was looking peaky already. That might have been from having to deal with umbreon's Dark-type moves, though. "So, when to talk about your experience," he resumed, spinning alakazam's pokéball on his finger. "You mind if I drop by after dinner at some point? Call you before, obviously. Just you and me – your friends would be dead weight because they don't have any Megas."

"Danny should join," Max interjected, and the pokéball nearly hit the ground before alakazam intercepted it. "Reward for Geosenge. Got it to work last week. Aggron, before you ask."

Gary had been about to ask, but instead he kept his mouth closed, fishing the pokéball out of its levitation. "You realise you're smashing scientific consensus here, right? Teenagers your age aren't supposed to have the bond or knowledge to enable Mega Evolution. You I could barely fit within the framework with your previous exploits of following Ash around, but your friend as well?" It beggared belief, and he foresaw many a mail and call to discuss hypotheses with Gramps. And probably less sleep than he really wanted, but he could live with it for a while. "Any more exploding forretress you want to drop, or can we return to Lumiose now?"

"Nah, we're good." Gary saw him check a watch. "Can you drop me off at the same stadium? Couple of sort-of-friends battle in like half an hour."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Serena sat in the smaller of the two Lumiose stadiums, a free seat to her right, as the movable field vanished with a grinding sound. She was going to watch the fourth of five battles she really wanted to see today. Not for the first time, she thanked whoever did the scheduling that she was able to do that. Literally none of her friends had matches at the same time– something that Max and Danny had said had happened to them in Hoenn. Multiple times at that.

Their group, consisting of Serena herself, Danny, Max, Jane, and Keith, had started the day in the main stadium, where both Jane and Keith had been knocked out before lunch. Jane's elimination was a bit of a disappointment, the girl herself admitted, but Keith had stood no chance against an older and ruthlessly efficient teen from Sinnoh. The froslass had been doable – Keith had thanked Danny profusely over lunch, when he hadn't been busy making sure Jane actually ate something – but the magmortar had been too much.

Then they went here, watching Max give what the announcer called a clinical performance at around two. He'd vanished afterwards, reappearing with Professor Oak's grandson in tow. They'd been hush hush about where they'd gone or what they'd talked about, but Serena wasn't that stupid. She knew that the orange-haired man had held the record for youngest to achieve Mega Evolution until Max had done that. Both of them were sitting somewhere higher up, Serena thought.

Danny was here, relaxed, and eating some early dinner as he tried to balance a salad in a plastic container without spilling it over any of the others. He was up around dinnertime, and while you could eat all you wanted in the audience, you couldn't while you were fighting a battle.

Or maybe you could, except it'd be seen as rude. Serena honestly didn't know if anyone had ever done that.

A quick look over to the left and she saw Jane still leaning into Keith. It looked more like their regular lovey-dovey stuff instead of consolation, at least, but she still averted her eyes. Even in a stadium this size, she didn't really feel like she should watch them. Instead, she turned right, spotting the empty seat.

What was taking Shauna so long? The announcer was already introducing the two Trainers up next. Not that Serena needed to listen this time. She already knew both of them.

Trevor and Tierno walked out of the catacombs onto the field. Both were mostly their normal selves – Trevor giving a shy little wave, only looking around once, while Tierno looked like he could burst out into dance at any moment, an entirely too big grin on his face.

Serena wasn't sure if it was real or if he was just doing it to cover his nerves. She didn't know the boys as well as she did Shauna, but the other Vaniville Performer had told her that they'd been a bit downcast at being drawn against each other so early on. Neither of them really wanted to fight the other in the second round, and it had taken adult intervention to sort them out.

Not for the first time, Serena compared the two boys with Danny and Max. She didn't remember them ever talking about it – not recently, anyway – but she was fairly certain the two would hold nothing back against each other. Maybe they would've, before she'd met them, but after all they'd been through? No way.

Shauna sat back down beside her, handing her two bottles of something fizzy. She passed one on to Danny. "Here you go. Fuel for the battle."

Danny mumbled something that sounded like thanks, but with his mouth full, Serena had no idea if it actually was. "Who do you think will win, Shauna? You've been with them for a year now."

The thirteen year old put a hand on her chin as a rumbling announced the field coming back up. Rock, but with an oblong pond on one side. Nothing you could keep gyarados in, but smaller Water-types would be fine. "Trevor's generally been better with the Gym Leaders, but… Tierno's really been on a roll the past weeks. Going to be close, though!" She paused as the referee gave a quick recap of the rules – Serena couldn't understand why that was being repeated every single time. "Be honest, Serena. Both of them are going to lose to Max no matter what."

Serena had to give Shauna that point. She'd battled Tierno and Max, and there was just a world of difference in how much they knew and how they were able to take hold of the battle and use the circumstances to their advantage. "I'm not sure there's anyone his age who's better." Serena certainly couldn't remember the last time he'd lost to anyone up to six months older, training battles with Danny excepted. "We," and she pointed at the eating boy to her left to tell Shauna who exactly she was talking about, "have joked about getting autographs from him before he wins a tournament."

"Not this one. That teenager who beat one of your other friends was really strong too." Serena looked past Danny, but Keith hadn't noticed, or hadn't responded. "But I did bet with my Mum that one of your friends would make it to the quarter-finals. If they do, I get to eat all the ice-cream I want for a week."

"And if they don't?" Serena asked, poking Danny in the side as covertly as she could. "What's your mother getting out of it?"

Shauna made a face. "Me having to cook the main dish for Yule for a dozen people." Commotion around them made the two girls look around, then down. "Mawile and lombre. That's a weird start."

"Weird how?" Danny asked as he leant forward, putting the empty packaging under his chair for now and grabbing something from the backpack in front of him.

"It's the same two Pokémon they started with the last time I saw them battle each other, like a week ago. Lombre won that, but it was close."

Serena shook her head as she focused on the battle below. Mawile had opened with a gust of Fairy Wind that lombre cartwheeled out of the way of before retaliating with a Bubblebeam. "Mawile always gets me. You'd think the big jaw was its mouth, but no."

Danny and Shauna both laughed heartily. "Yeah, I had that," Danny said as mawile used Flamethrower – somehow. "Confused seven year old me a lot when I first saw one at my uncle's lab. They're kind of weird Pokémon."

Lombre had dodged the Flamethrower, and decided to move closer to mawile, running across the arena on all fours as it charged a blue orb on its dish. "Tierno really likes dances, right?"

"That's so bad," Shauna replied, faking shock. "Lombre's pretty good in the rain, and it weakens fire." Rain started inside the shielded bubble. "And this time, I don't have to get wet because Lombre started using it."

Serena poked Danny in the shoulder. "You hear that, mister 'Hail is fine to walk in'? I'm not alone!"

"Say it one time," Danny said far more put-on than Serena thought he actually was. "Why is lombre not heading for the water? Shauna?"

Mawile managed to tag the speedy lombre with a Fairy Wind, but the Grass-type didn't break its lope, instead trying for a flank and an attack that made the dish on its head glow blue. "Mawile knows Charge Beam from Trevor's raichu," Shauna said as the Steel-type jumped over the lombre. Its big jaw snapped with a Thunder Fang, hitting, but lombre shook itself loose. "Trevor needs to be careful. Lombre knows Absorb."

Serena gave her friend a weird look. Absorb was okay, but mawile had the huge jaw that would do more than lombre could. Another Thunder Fang nearly hit, forcing lombre to do an awkward jump that ended with it having to roll to move away. "I think lombre's actually too close. One good Thunder Fang or Bite and lombre's going to hurt."

Tierno seemed to agree with Serena as he ordered lombre away. Trevor replied with an order for Charge Beam – which missed – and then he ordered mawile to stay still, telling her to use Fairy Wind.

Lombre unleashed a Hydro Pump that nearly washed mawile away in response. "Oops," Shauna muttered.

Mawile started moving around a bit more after that, landing a few hits on the lombre in the process, but in the end, the rain and repeated Hydro Pumps – Tierno choosing to go for power over conserving energy – ended up winning the day for the Jolly Pokémon. Serena wasn't sure it had been worth it. Lombre looked tired from the heavy attacking, and mawile was just too slow to consistently dodge all attacks, no matter if it was Hydro Pump or Bubblebeam.

Lombre looking tired was borne out a minute later as Trevor's florges equalised the score with a single Moonblast.

Tierno sent out his raichu, the large mouse immediately sending a Rain Dance pulse up into the air to keep the rain going. "That's going to make things harder for Trevor," Danny muttered. "Hope florges is up to the task."

"Why?" Serena wondered, only for a blinding flash to appear in the clouds above the arena. "Oh. That."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _I was in Lumiose today. Watched most of the Ro64 matches in the lower half of the schedule. Only saw a couple of really good Trainers, and nearly all of 'em are already marked Ace or Expert. One exception is that Maple teen – the one who's marked I/E. He's definitely solid E – check the match if you don't believe me. He kept a ninjask in against a nosepass and nearly won. Then he used a swinub to clean it and the next arbok up decisively. I looked his used Pokémon up, and so far, he's only used four Pokémon total in two matches. Three of those are new since last year, too._

– Pokébet Lumiose Conference forum thread

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And we're off. Several returning faces this chapter, and more than you think.

Hugo's team is loosely based on pre-evolutions of Wally's final Battle Maison team. Tierno's lombre is sort of canon (ludicolo in the anime), while Trevor's mawile is a replacement for his aerodactyl. (Fossils are generally rarer in this story than they are in the anime and ferocious and aggressive aerodactyl never seemed to fit with Trevor stylistically.)


	37. Careful Manoeuvring

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 37: Careful Manoeuvring**

Florges weren't Grass-type, and Danny kept forgetting that. Trevor's Pokémon wasn't helping either, leading against the raichu with an Energy Ball that curved in the same direction as the Electric-type dodged. Either florges could control it in-flight, or she used her previous experience with raichu to work out the way her opponent was going to go.

Half of the times Danny sparred in full earnest with Max, they had a sequence like this one, where both Pokémon knew each other well enough that even the unpredictable became predictable.

What was also predictable was the raichu using her tail as a lightning rod, attracting electricity from overhead and blasting it at the florges. A glimmering Light Screen diluted the Thunder, and some deft movement by the green-and-white Pokémon made the hit glancing at best. It still meant she shuddered violently as the electricity ran through her arm, but she was capable of forming a blue light on her other hand.

The blue light multiplied as florges spun once, unleashing a Petal Blizzard that forced raichu to use a Thunderbolt to block it. The attack also got rid of all the little rocks that the petals that had hit the ground had thrown up. "Nice one raichu! Time to dig!"

"Oh no you don't," Trevor replied as though he had heard Tierno. "Grass Knot!"

Florges's eyes glowed green and grassy vines erupted all over the rocks near raichu. The Electric-type nearly made it into the ground, but then a pair of vines tied themselves around her tail. She electrocuted them instantly, but the delay was just long enough for florges to hit an Energy Ball on the rocks above raichu's body.

Tierno's Pokémon got out of the ground after that, face and back both smudged. "That's one way to stop Dig," Serena said, and Danny didn't even need to turn to her to know that she was looking at him. "So, how long until Max finds a way to teach it to half his team?"

"I'm fairly sure vulpix can't learn it," Danny replied as Tierno went back to the standard Electric-type fallback: pelt them with enough electricity to make them rethink everything. It was pretty effective usually, or at least it was in manectric's hands. "They're both pretty good. Better than Max's opponent by miles."

"Hey, Shauna," Keith said as he leant forward. Danny pushed himself into his seat to give his friend a better view. "Where'd Trevor get that Shiny Stone? Some tournament?"

"He bought it," Shauna replied, and Danny saw Keith wince from the edge of his vision. "Here in Lumiose."

"There's a shop for it on Vernal Avenue," Serena explained. "Not too far from the accessory shop you went to last week, Danny."

Shauna gave him a weird look – the only teenager in their row who wasn't in on the secret. "Didn't take you for someone to go there. What did you get?"

"A collar for the family growlithe," Danny replied as he turned to look at the arena below again. He'd seen flashes from the corner of his eyes while he'd been looking up and down their row, but he didn't think anything had really hit hard. A glancing Energy Ball here, a diminished Thunderbolt there… The florges was very good at disrupting or avoiding the full brunt of the attacks, while raichu was just naturally agile, if not great at using it effectively. "He'll have been with us for five years at the end of the month."

And the pendant on his chest, naturally, but Shauna didn't need to know that. She'd find out later. Hopefully Serena could head her off about the little lie-by-omission, though.

"Raichu, use Thunder!" Tierno ordered, striking a pose as he did so.

Raichu jumped on one of the few rocks that went higher than human knee-high, launching herself off it before a Moonblast obliterated it, and summoned every last drop of electricity from the clouds overhead. The attack was pretty impressive, though a small voice in Danny's head compared it negatively to manectric's or even Maria's raichu's from last year.

And because florges had used Moonblast to destroy raichu's launching platform, she was too slow in actually blocking it; the Fairy-type energy in her arms vanishing as the Thunder enveloped her. For a few seconds, only yellow light was visible where florges had stood, and when it cleared out, the Fairy-type looked a lot worse for the wear. A camera helpfully zoomed in, showing that smoke was coming off of it, and more than a few electrical burns littered her torso and arms.

But her movement was unhindered as she started a string of attacks. First, with a flick of one wrist, was a Magical Leaf; the pink projectiles seeking out raichu and forcing an inefficient shield of electricity to block the small projectiles. Then, with a twirl, pink turned to blue, and homing made way for power and speed as florges unleashed a Petal Blizzard in a full arc in front of her. These projectiles hit the ground in more than a few spots, crashing with what must have been audible thunks, and raichu was forced to push even more power into the block just to keep the attack at bay.

And then florges moved forward, reaching out with both arms as she spun thrice in rapid succession, and a Petal Dance was the third attack. It blasted clean through the electricity raichu was putting out – helped by the Electric-type having exerted power for more than ten seconds continuously already, at what looked like nearly full burn. You couldn't just attack at full force all the time, even when it was used for defence. Trevor used that excellently, sending raichu flying while florges stopped her spin, concentrating to release a whiff of Aromatherapy to clear her head.

"That was cool!" came two voices simultaneously, from both his left and his right; one boy, one girl. "I didn't know you could chain attacks like that!" Serena continued enthusiastically.

"I didn't either!" Shauna admitted as raichu got back up. "Trevor never showed me that!"

This fight looked like it was about to end. Florges sent an Energy Ball at the raichu, who dodged it by literal inches, and not because florges gave the shot any unexpected spin. Tierno recognised it as well, ordering one last attack; one that made Danny sit up in his seat, remembering what had happened eleven months before.

Raichu dropped to all fours, electricity flaring into life around her as she accelerated at an angle away from the florges, shifting her path with small movements to avoid the attacks florges was throwing her way to disrupt her.

Gold turned so bright that Danny could no longer see the raichu; only a ball of electricity, but he knew what it looked like down there. Trevor and florges were facing a raichu encased in so much electricity that she looked black and white, and with a loud cry that the microphones picked up perfectly, the Mouse Pokémon jumped at florges. Trevor's Pokémon sent a desperate Moonblast, but all that did was cause the aura to flare and explode half a second before a ballistic mouse rammed herself into the Fairy-type.

Florges flew at least thirty feet, landing on the water's edge and not moving an inch. Raichu became visible a few moments later near where florges had stood before. She, too, was not moving. "That's Volt Tackle's downside for ya," Danny said. "Recoil. Lots and lots of it. Probably what Tierno wanted, though."

"Raichu looked a lot worse off," Keith agreed with him. "Bit of a gamble on dodging the attacks before the jump, though."

"A guaranteed loss, or a potential tie," Jane spoke up for the first time since they'd sat down. "I know which one I'd take."

The rest of them murmured collective agreement.

 **~~§~~§~~**

"So, what do ya think?" Gary said as both florges and raichu were returned. "One of 'em is going to be your opponent. Anything you spotted so far?"

Max thought for a second, running through the battle up until now. "Trevor's Pokémon haven't been moving much, and Tierno has been using that a bit," he started, remembering the Swift Swim lombre had utilised earlier. "Not as much with raichu, perhaps. He also likes attacking from range, like what mawile did, and everything florges did too." He paused to sip from his bottle, only to find himself at the end of his water. "Tierno loves his power-intensive moves. That Thunder looked pretty strong."

"Eh, Ash's pikachu could do worse," Gary said dismissively. "Especially with that Rain Dance as a battery. You're right on the styles, though. Raichu _was_ pedestrian. It could be a lot faster or more mobile." Max could hear the scorn in Gary's voice. "Mind, I'm a bit impressed with weedy. That sequence florges did took a lot of practice to chain it together like that." Below, the last two Pokémon were sent out, and the Pallet Town scientist outright laughed – the first time Max had heard him do that. "That brings back memories. Their starters, probably. Wonder why weedy over there sent out charizard if he knew the blastoise was coming."

Max rolled his eyes at Gary's continued nicknaming, wondering if he had one too, but he had to admit that he didn't know the answer to the question either. His knowledge of their teams was limited. He knew Tierno had a hitmontop, but that was about it. He'd used that, lombre, and blastoise against Serena a month ago. "Maybe Trevor tricked himself into it? Think your opponent thinks you're going to send out something that's strong against the blastoise, so he wants to send out something that's strong against the counter of the blastoise counter?" Max shook his head. "That made my head hurt."

"Nah, that's overthinking. Weedy might, but dancer boy over there? No way he thinks about battles like that. Besides, any plan that supposes too many things about your opponent is a bad one." Below, the battle got underway. "Still, I shouldn't say anything. I lost that one time."

"Didn't blastoise and charizard knock out something like half your teams between them, too?" Max wondered. He honestly wasn't too certain on the exact order.

"Sounds right," Gary said as charizard flew over the field, using Flamethrower as he did so. "Wonder why no Rain Dance. All the other Pokémon had it."

"Maybe charizard has Sunny Day. Don't think we'd want to see a weather-off." Which sounded like something his sister could do for a Contest. He'd have to tell her about it. "Gotta admit the blastoise would be easier to deal… with," he trailed off as he saw an Ice Beam force charizard out of using Dragon Tail. "Of course Tierno taught him that."

Gary chuckled – the more usual way for him to show amusement. "Bit of a slow Ice Beam. Sceptile can dodge it easily at range. Of course, the other option's safer."

Max didn't reply, instead watching as the charizard threw a Fire Spin at blastoise, who blasted the attack away; both cannons firing powerful jets of water. A powerful Water Gun, probably. Not enough force behind it for Hydro Pump.

Trevor seemed to realise that the fire wasn't doing much, and he ordered a Dragon Claw. Charizard dove, kaleidoscopic energy dancing on its claws, but Tierno was ready for it.

Two globes of water shot from blastoise's cannons when charizard was too close to dodge, and the attack exploded on the Fire-type's body. Momentum carried him into blastoise, but the shelled Pokémon seemed to lean with the weight, flipping himself onto his side and then shoving charizard off onto the ground hard.

A desperate Flamethrower kept blastoise from lining its cannons up with the prone Fire-type, buying charizard just enough time to get up and use another Dragon Claw, but blastoise retracted arms, legs, and head into its shell, using a Rapid Spin that forced charizard to fly off instead.

"This is over," Gary said dismissively. "Think about it. The blastoise is negating all the fire, weedy isn't using charizard's speed and manoeuvrability to his advantage, and taking the frontal approach means Hydro Cannon to the face. You can't defeat a blastoise like that."

Max vaguely remembered something about Ash having to use the field to his advantage, literally making it too hot under blastoise's feet, and then using steam to hide charizard from sight. "Guess I know what to prepare for."

"Yeah, you do. You've got two Pokémon who should beat it straight up," Gary told him as Trevor tried a Dragon Rage, which blastoise took in order to blast a Hydro Pump at charizard. It hit by inches, but the force sent charizard tumbling into the ground. "If it didn't know Ice Beam, I think even that shelgon of yours could beat it. Slug-it-out match, but standing and trading without ice would be in your advantage. Don't know rest of your team."

Only xatu really came to mind to have a chance, but he made a lot of sense for the possible hitmontop. Max would have to see for tomorrow.

Charizard, meanwhile, had activated Blaze, but even a Blaze Flamethrower wasn't winning out against a concentrated Hydro Pump blast. Lots of smoke and sizzling, sure, but the blastoise wasn't hit. Gary's remark about Trevor not using charizard's agility was immensely accurate, and Max wasn't sure if it was something Trevor hadn't trained for. Considering Tierno was also not really using mobility except on lombre… Maybe?

There was one moment that could have led to a way to come back when Tierno ordered a Hydro Cannon at the wrong time, but charizard wasn't able to upend the blastoise with the Dragon Claw while the Water-type was recharging his element. The two Pokémon grappled, but time was in Tierno's favour, and once the water was back, charizard was forced to fly off or face getting soaked from up close.

The inevitable end came, and with it, Gary left as well, citing the need to start working on research questions. Max got up a few moments later, grabbing his Holo Caster and calling Danny to ask where he was sitting and if there was a free spot there.

Watching battles was much better with someone to talk to, after all.

 **~~§~~§~~**

It took a while for Max to join them in their room in the Pokémon Center. Unlike some others they had stayed in, the Central Lumiose Center didn't have computers in every room, which made finding out how your sister had done reliant on finding a free computer. With the Center full to overflowing… It took a while, and it had been worse when they had left that morning. "And?" Serena asked as she looked up from grooming zorua, not breaking the brushing. "Did she..."

"Nah," Max replied as he produced a candy bar from one of his pockets – and then two more for the others. He tossed them over, Danny catching his and Serena letting hers flop onto the bed. "Lost in the semi-finals early this morning. Third straight semi-final result."

"Extension on her grant, at least," Danny offered as he fiddled with the packaging. "She's basically got one until her eighteenth birthday now, right?"

"Think it's closer to two years from September," Max corrected as Danny bit into his bar. Blackberries assaulted his tongue. "What's it like in Kalos, Serena? The grants, I mean."

"Everyone gets four years," the girl replied, poking zorua in the side to get him to move. "No extensions except for winning stuff like the Conference or being Kalos Queen."

Max snorted. "So, no extensions for anyone, basically," he said, taking the other chair at the desk and folding his arms. "I mean, that's only so many extensions per year, and winning stuff within four years… That's rare." Even Ash had taken the better part of five years.

"Ours is shorter baseline," Danny said after swallowing. "And only yours has been extended. Cut-off was the Victory Tournament." Then, to Serena, who looked like she'd been about to ask a question. "Three and a half years from the day you officially leave, extended for a couple of reasons. Good results in Conferences, Grand Festivals, winning multiple small tournaments in a year… Stuff like that."

"It's top eight here, by the way," Max said. "Checked last week. Top eight is three months, top four or higher is six months. No, I don't get why it's like that either," he added, throwing his hands up theatrically. "Makes no sense."

"Politics make no sense, young grasshopper." Danny's imitation of a generic old guru from films got him a roll of Max's eyes, but a giggle from Serena. "Back to your sister. Any idea what she's doing next?"

Max shrugged while he finished his candy. "She didn't know herself. Well, Contests – she still wants to get to the final – but she didn't know where. Not that there are a lot of options left. It's only the Home Regions and Unova that do Contests. Kalos doesn't, Prudan doesn't any longer because it wasn't popular enough, Alola doesn't. And Unova's still rebuilding. It won't be this July there."

It took Danny a few seconds to remember why Max would know that bit of trivia. "Oh, right, Alice," he said, feeling like he could hit himself for forgetting that. "Are they back in Kanto now? Linda still needs one badge, right?"

"I think they're travelling right now. Literally right now," Max added for some reason. That much Danny understood. "And yeah, one badge. Either Cerulean or one of the two in the shared Kanto-Johto territory."

"Shared? What? How does that work?"

"Kanto and Johto are one landmass. Mostly," Max added, before Danny could mention the islands or Cianwood in Johto. "The League organisation is shared between them. One Elite Four, and eight Gyms in what's traditionally Johto or Kanto land. The other two are in a strip of land between Mount Silver and the Indigo Plateau that both of them have control over. Something historical, I think."

"That's why Lance is the Champion of Kanto _and_ Johto," Danny added, before he realised something. "Not sure why it's Kanto first… He's from Blackthorn in Johto, right?" Max looked like he knew about as much as Danny did. "It's kind of a weird situation, but it works out for them."

Serena stood up, dropping the candy wrapper in the bin. "So why do they have separate Conferences and Grand Festivals? If the League is shared like that," she asked.

To that, neither Danny nor Max had an actual answer. Before either of them could say so, however, Max's Holo Caster went off. "Max here… Tomorrow? That's quick… That explains… Yeah, I'll tell him… See you there!" He pressed a button, ending the call. "Gary," he said, confirming Danny's suspicion. "If we'd be okay testing tomorrow evening."

Danny saw Serena frown, probably because she was excluded from that. He wasn't too okay with that either. Something about Gary just rubbed him wrong, but there wasn't really anything he could do about it. "I guess. Don't understand why he didn't want to use Friday for it. No battles that day."

To that, Max had no answer. Again.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Keith found Serena sitting in a corner in a café not too far from their Pokémon Center. He and Jane made their way over to her corner table, mugs of hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows laid beside them already waiting for them. "No Danny and Max today?"

Serena shook her head, though he did smile a bit. "Talking strategy for their battles. You know how they are," she told them. Keith definitely had to give them that. "Besides… They can't answer me on this. You can."

A question that Danny and Max weren't able to answer? What? Keith wasn't sure he followed. "What Is it then?"

Serena's answer didn't even start before a waiter came by, asking about lunch. Neither Keith nor Jane had touched the menus on the table, but with a shared look and a shared shrug, they said that Serena should just pick for all of them. She did, selecting some kind of soup with bread, and a side salad. "So… Before you came here… You travelled alone, right?" Serena asked after the waiter had left. "I just wanna know… What's it like?"

Keith looked at Jane, wondering who should go first. They'd had very different trips through Hoenn. Both okay, he guessed.

Jane's nod towards him told him enough. "Well… It was kind of hard at first," Keith started as he tasted his hot chocolate. It needed a tiny bit of sugar more, and he reached for the bowl. "I didn't know a lot of useful things. Class stuff, yeah, but… Class doesn't tell you what's a good way to put your tent up in heavy wind." That had been one of the worst nights. Getting up five times just to ensure he still had a tent come morning had been terrible. Especially on like his fourth night on his own. "And I spent way too long just dawdling and doing nothing. I didn't get to a Gym until February."

"It was normal stuff for me that was hard," Jane shared. "Cooking, filtering water… I thought I could, but it was so much easier in class. I bought a lot of food that was good both cooked and uncooked."

There was a reason Keith was the cook between the two of them, but Jane never said it had been that bad. "I think both of us had the usual stuff, too. You know, trying to catch a Pokémon without weakening it, running to get away from angry Bugs… Find a list of common beginner errors and I did half of them at least." He tried his chocolate again. Much better. "Why?"

"You want to go alone?" Jane asked Serena before the Kalosian could speak up. Instead, she nodded. "Where? Not somewhere the others are going?"

Serena shook her head. "No. That's not it. I just… I can't always stay with them," she said, voice fast and higher than it usually was. She shook her head again. "They've helped me a lot, but I think I need to travel alone next. See what that's like," she continued more slowly.

Oh, right! That was why she couldn't ask them. Danny and Max had always been with each other, or with Ash and his friends in Max's case. They literally couldn't answer the questions like Jane or Keith could. "Where are you planning to go?"

Serena shrugged in response to Keith's question. "Kanto or Johto. I want to do Contests, but I can't remember which Grand Festival is when." The wry grin was directed at herself, Keith thought. "I know Danny and Max are also going to one of those two. Max was arguing Johto, Danny felt more for Kanto."

"It'll be Johto," Jane said with certainty. "Max leads, Danny follows. It's how they work for this." A short giggle escaped her. "So different from what it was in class in that one month."

It took Keith a moment to remember what exactly his girlfriend was referring to, but he did, and he shared the story with Serena as he recalled it. "So Max just got back, and most of us barely remember him. Except that he knew a lot about Pokémon, but he's Norman's son, so… That's normal." He stopped for a moment, and Serena nodded to show that she followed. "So a few days later, a couple of classmates had a huge discussion. Something about if beautifly or dustox were better."

"That's… They're like Hoenn's vivilion, right?" Serena interrupted them, looking at Keith specifically. He nodded. His vivilion wasn't with him right now, but Serena had the Bug-type before. "Max's sister has a beautifly, I think."

Keith was certain of that. "There are like five people arguing, and Jane and I, and a few others, are watching. Then suddenly, someone has the idea to ask Max, because his sister has one."

"We knew that because we watched the Kanto Grand Festival at school," Jane added, causing Serena to look at them weirdly. "She's from our school too. Teachers were very proud and wanted to show that Contests were as good as battling."

"Everyone walks up to Max, who's just sitting in a corner, doing schoolwork. Like he needed it." Keith couldn't resist the chuckle, and Serena gave him a look that told him she understood perfectly. "I think he literally got straight full marks from the moment he returned on anything Pokémon related. Bet the teacher just gave up checking after I left. So anyway. He's sitting in a corner. Danny's around too, doing… Something. Reading, I think. And they ask."

"And Max goes off on this entire five minute explanation that's way beyond any of you?"

Jane and Keith both burst out into laughter from that, and the confused look Serena gave them nearly made it worse. "He didn't. He just said something really simple. I forgot what," Keith admitted.

"Something about how dustox's part-Poison typing meant it was better at the powder moves, and that beautifly was good in other ways," Jane said helpfully. "Nothing you couldn't get from a book."

"So then Danny speaks up," Keith resumed the story, "basically telling everyone that there's more to it and that Max knows that. Everyone starts pestering Max about it until he finally gives in." Keith took that moment to drain his mug, and he used the mug to hide his grin at Serena's captive look. "And then he just goes into this two minute monologue about phy… phy-si-o-lo-gi-cal," he slowly spoke, annoyed at himself for having to speak the word syllable by syllable, "differences, and how they're like mirrors of each other and more of that."

"Everyone stunned, and then our teacher walks up." Jane cleared her throat. "Well, Max," she said, her voice pitched a bit lower to imitate the adult. "That's very detailed of you. What did you mean by saying they are mirrors?"

"I'm still not sure she completely understood what he meant," Keith admitted. "But Max, after a look in Danny's direction, explains." He smirked. "Five minutes later, he's roped into giving a presentation to the upper two years on related Pokémon."

All of them shared a laugh, each of them probably remembering or imagining the look of chagrin on Max's face when he'd found out that was happening. "How's that different, though. Max explaining everything is normal."

"It's not Max. It's Danny. He pushes Max to do stuff like that, and Max pushes him on Pokémon," Jane said as a waiter came by to place some mats on the table. "If they didn't have each other… They wouldn't be nearly as good. Good because it's in their blood, sure, but not like this. Not..."

Not the boys who went up against Team Flare as they had done. Not the two youngest users of Mega Evolution, even if it was still sort of secret. Not the not-even-fourteen-year-olds who Keith privately thought might actually make a punt for being a Grand Champion one day. Either of them. "Enough about those two," Keith said. "So you want to go alone and want to know specific stuff?" Serena gave him a cautious nod. "Well, ask away."

And so she did as they enjoyed a great lunch until it was time to head for the stadium for Max's match against Tierno.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max wondered which Pokémon Tierno would send out first. He'd looked up the other boy's results that morning, revealing something that had made Danny groan. The dance-crazy teenager had put raichu and blastoise out second and third in the first and second rounds. It was, as Danny put it, a really clear pattern that Max could use.

The first was less clear. In the first round, the opener had been a corphish, while he'd seen the lombre the day before against Trevor. He was half-expecting another Water-type, but having four Water-types on one team was kind of a lot for someone who'd only been travelling for a year and didn't specifically go for them. Not when a lot of Kalos Water-types had to have water around, and this field didn't have any. It was the so-called Grassy Canyon field, with small, grass-covered, rolling hills flanking a dirt pass straight down the middle. Nothing he could really make use of, except for vulpix or shelgon setting it on fire, but nothing bad either.

That was fine by him. It wasn't like there was a large pool like in one of the other fields. That could've allowed blastoise to hide.

Max palmed his first pokéball as the announcer finished the introduction that had been casting Tierno as an underdog. True, Max had to admit, but every fight was one he could lose. Complacency had no place in battling, Overconfidence was a particularly insidious way of losing, and one Max was trying to avoid as hard as he could.

Swinub was matched up with a cacnea. A blast from the past, and a Pokémon he knew the limits of very well. James's had been more supplementary to Jessie's Pokémon, but just seeing it so often meant he knew what the Grass-type generally could and could not do.

Cacnea set up a Sandstorm first, vanishing into it, but that didn't mean anything to swinub. They sought food by smell, and Pokémon weren't too different. He would find the cacnea.

Tierno's Pokémon found Max's first, though. A Poison Sting rained down onto swinub from up above, to his right. A blast of ice turned them into icy needles, and Max noted where the cacnea had roughly been. "Move up the hill."

Tierno's Pokémon kept hidden as swinub trudged up, snorting and searching, but not having too much luck in finding his opponent. Max couldn't spot it either, not that he was trying too hard. Chasing something that wasn't there was one way to give cacnea the upper hand.

The second attack was a Pin Missile from roughly the same height, and somewhere far on Tierno's half of the arena. A quick Icy Wind gave enough resistance that the attack probably did nothing more than to tickle swinub, to Max's surprise. Sure, it was a block at close range, which was where swinub was best, but for the attack to be diminished that much… It suggested a big difference in strength.

Or maybe cacnea was better in close. "On your guard," Max spoke into the microphone, having to squint now to see the brown Pokémon in the Sandstorm. "Circle back to my end."

Swinub dutifully headed back, turning his back to where the cacnea had been, trusting Max to tell him of anything. Nothing happened, and swinub took up position just under the top of a hill, out of sight for a lot of long-ranged attacks like those that Tierno's Pokémon had used up until now.

And it took the bait, except not in the way Max intended. He barely spotted the Faint Attack in time, at the same time as swinub, and the Needle Arm that landed as cacnea stepped out of the darkness was a direct hit, but one on swinub's back instead of his flank. That fact allowed him to stay on the ground, interrupting cacnea's escape back into a Faint Attack with an icy snort that caused the Grass-type to cry out in pain.

It took the normal way out by quickly jumping up, turning around and blasting a weak Pin Missile as it jumped back, stopping any energy-based attacks from following as he hopped from hill to hill.

Swinub didn't have one of those, yet. Ice Beam was a right pain in the arse to get right, even for an Ice-type.

The Pig Pokémon rushed after cacnea in a Take Down, tracing the trajectory perfectly,. He barely missed at first as Tierno's Pokémon was able to jump again, but it went left instead of back, and swinub gratefully accepted the extra speed he got from running downhill. Cacnea tried a Poison Sting to stop the Take Down, but those didn't do enough.

Swinub connecting launched the Grass-type up the left set of hills, tumbling across the slope as momentum carried it upwards. An Icy Wind washed over the hills, disrupting the Sandstorm with it and allowing Max to see the cacnea get up in time to try and defend itself with a Needle Arm.

So swinub just went underneath, diving into the hillside and immediately heading up. The hit glanced cacnea because it scurried off, but it did unbalance the Grass-type, sending it tumbling down the hill. "Get it," Max ordered.

Again, cacnea got up before swinub could reach it, but this time, the two settled into a careful fight. Cacnea swung with the Needle Arm, mostly horizontally, at eye height for swinub, who tried to get in close enough for the slight wind-up on his Icy snorts to not matter because it was too close. Sadly for him, Tierno's dancing skills had paid off, allowing cacnea to pirouette out of a direct hit more than once, and also allowing him to land one hit before swinub decided that playtime was over and blasting cacnea mid-jump.

His Ice-type really packed a punch up close.

Cacnea wobbled as it got up, while swinub dashed onto the hill to his right before going back down in another Take Down, ready to knock his opponent out of the fight. He dodged the feeble Needle Arm, hit, and… Purple?

Destiny Bond tied it up, and a part of Max felt robbed of a sure victory. Then again, he should have known about the option, so… "Well done," he muttered as he enlarged the pokéball, knowing full-well that the microphone would pick it up. Credit where credit was due and all that. "You did great, swinub. Sorry I forgot about Destiny Bond."

In the event of a double knock-out, both Trainers had to release their Pokémon simultaneously, and both of them indicated they were ready within seconds of returning their first Pokémon. There was no hesitation on Tierno's part, and Max felt glad for it. It meant his guess for Tierno's Pokémon was probably right, and that he'd selected the right counter.

Shelgon against raichu. There was a chance that Tierno would just switch out to his blastoise, but Max wasn't afraid of that. Max had a counter or two for that lined up already, and if Tierno wanted to switch back to raichu for whatever reason, Max would just lock in the shelgon against raichu fight.

Thank jirachi for switching clauses.

The first thing raichu tried was to set up a Rain Dance, but that was precisely what Max had been counting on. Shelgon, released on top of one of the hills, executed the plan that they had discussed the night before perfectly, shooting the Rain Dance out of the sky with a perfectly aimed Dragon Pulse.

She still got it off a few seconds later, flinging the orb at an angle instead of straight up, but it was a warning shot to Tierno that Max knew what the dance-crazy teen liked to do.

Raichu ran up a hill near her, unleashing a quick Charge Beam the moment she saw shelgon's position, but a Dragon Pulse obliterated it, telling raichu that she needed to step up if she wanted to attack head-on.

It wasn't what Max would do in this situation, but from what he'd seen of Tierno… It was something _he_ would do, and he obliged, ordering raichu into a Thunderbolt from place as rain started falling down in earnest. This, too, was blocked by Dragon Pulse, though it created an explosion that blocked Max and shelgon's sight of the raichu. "Up high."

And the Dragon Rage hit raichu in the belly, disrupting the attack that was forming. Max wasn't sure which brand of electrical attack it was, nor did he really care. The raichu landed safely, her tail stretching to the sky and gathering electricity on it. Yellow, gold, and something darker in colour shifted into an orb as she started moving, wanting to get closer to launch her Electroball.

"Dragon Pulse, next hill," Max ordered, a plan forming to deal with the attack that he hadn't seen before. Shelgon obeyed immediately, sending the attack where Max had told him to. The hillside erupted in dirt and dust, effectively obscuring sight again. Raichu would probably go around where the attack had landed, but which way… "Dragon Rush… Left."

And as shelgon surged forward, his path took him directly into the path of the raichu, who had also gone that way in her attempt to land a hit on shelgon. The Mouse Pokémon immediately flew back as simple physics did its work, and it was only a quick flick of her tail that sent the Electroball off to the side, showering the straightening shelgon – he had rolled down the hill after his rush forward had made him leave the ground for a moment – with dirt, but not with electricity.

With a snap of her tail, raichu got up to all fours, concentrating and calling the Thunder down from the clouds above while shelgon braced himself. He tried to stop the electricity with a Dragon Rage, but as he and Max had both expected, it was not enough, and the Dragon-type was hit by the full might of the Electric attack, the white of his shell vanishing in the brightness.

But when it passed, he was perfectly capable of sending a Dragon Pulse out. The aim was slightly off; to the left of where raichu had been, but it was close enough to scare the orange Pokémon into moving up on the hill, where it tried to get out of sight. "Back up now."

Dragon Rush did mean the path up was straight up, and a Charge Beam tickled shelgon from behind as he climbed. Raichu tried to follow that up with a Thunderbolt, but a Dragon Pulse blocked it. Shelgon was uncaring of the explosion happening close to his face, instead using that time to charge a Flamethrower, his face towards the sky.

Weakened by the rain it may be, but raichu was not prepared for the Flamethrower, even as she unleashed a Thunder from up high. The attacks passed each other by in the air, striking true on both sides. Shelgon looked like he was grunting in pain, but raichu was worse-off as the fire completely shattered her concentration, leading to the Electric-type landing face-first, immediately rolling over to extinguish the embers still present in her fur.

But having to do that meant shelgon just had a free shot of Dragon Pulse. Amazingly, raichu managed to jump out of the way just in time, her tail probably avoiding the energy by inches. "Go!" Max ordered quickly, needlessly as shelgon was already of the same mind. He rushed forward, and raichu immediately replied by coating herself in electricity, holding it to hurt shelgon whenever the two met.

Max's Dragon-type had timed it perfectly, hitting Tierno's Pokémon less than half a second after she had hit the ground, before she could use her agility to jump away. Once again, shelgon's weight threw raichu around, and while electricity danced on white skin, suggesting that there was some minor paralysis going on, the orange Pokémon was way worse off.

But the paralysis was what Tierno had been looking for. The moment raichu got back up, she summoned every bit of energy she had available to her, shaping it into the golden aura of Volt Tackle.

Just as planned.

Max watched impassively as shelgon tried a Dragon Rage while adjusting his stance. The aura just absorbed it, gaining a green-ish corona for a second or two before the foreign energy and most colour was pushed out. Then raichu blurred into movement, crossing the distance between the two Pokémon in maybe two seconds.

And perhaps a tenth of a second before raichu hit, shelgon threw up a Protect.

It shattered with a sound like glass breaking; sharp, probably painful to be near, but the move did its job. A lot of Volt Tackle's energy was used to overpower the Protect, and the more electricity was drained from it, the more it became raichu throwing herself into something that was four times its weight and prepared for her. Shelgon skidded back, but raichu completely flew over shelgon, landing hard on the slope. Her body rolled down, and she offered no resistance to that whatsoever.

"Raichu is unable to battle."

Max was pretty sure that without the twenty months spent in Ash's company, he would've struggled with countering the raichu effectively. However, he had, and Tierno being predictable in picking raichu second had already sealed the deal. Just knowing what the options for that Pokémon family were, and knowing intimately how Volt Tackle actually worked – the electricity was far more dangerous than the Pokémon – made it a battle that Max had the advantage in.

Sadly, his experience didn't extend to blastoise. Ash did have a squirtle, but he was kind of on loan to a fire-fighting team or something. The details were a bit convoluted.

He glanced upwards, the source of the rain significantly lighter than it had been before. It wouldn't last much longer, and if blastoise were to refresh it, it'd be without the electrical charge that raichu gave it. If he wanted to use manectric, now would be the best time to send her out, even without the collar hidden away in his left trouser pocket.

Max decided against it; wanting to see shelgon fight some more. It was his first real battle since evolving, after all. Spars aplenty, but Max hadn't used him against trainers who weren't his friends since that day.

Blastoise wasted absolutely no time, Tierno immediately ordering a Hydro Cannon, to Max's surprise. The orbs gathered on the cannons, larger than they'd been the day before against charizard thanks to the rain. "Dragon Pulse blastoise," Max ordered, keeping his voice level and silently apologising to shelgon for doing it that way.

The attacks both hit, Dragon Pulse passing through the middle of the two Hydro Cannon projectiles. Max deliberately kept an eye on blastoise, and he saw Tierno's starter take a step back as the green energy hit him on the underbelly of his shell, near his left arm. Something he could use later on.

Meanwhile, the Hydro Cannon wasn't enough to knock shelgon out. The white Dragon-type roared a challenge, evoking excitement in Max's torso, and he let the feeling spread through him, uncaring if it made him grin like a madman, as Danny had called it.

There was no such thing as a Dragon-type Overgrow, but shelgon made it look like there was one anyway. The Dragon Rage was larger than previous ones, and it managed to explode the Ice Beam that blastoise had sent the moment he had recovered enough from launching the Hydro Cannon. Dust obscured the vision between them, but shelgon didn't care, sending a trio of only marginally weaker Dragon Pulses, compared to earlier, into there, hoping to find the blastoise at the other end.

The dodge blastoise executed, dropping onto his shell and spinning through the attacks with a backwards Rapid Spin, was impressive, as was the upside-down Ice Beam – blastoise doing that as he started see-sawing to get back on his feet – that blocked the Dragon Rage follow-up.

Max heard the commentator laud the moves, rightly so.

Shelgon stood his ground as blastoise went back on the offensive, pushing out a Hydro Pump that splashed against a Protect, soaking the ground around shelgon. The shield held, and shelgon spat out a Dragon Pulse into blastoise's next attack, blocking an Ice Beam from hitting his face. Cold still washed over him as the attacks mingled and exploded, but it wasn't a hit.

Another roar told Max that shelgon was nearing the end of his tether, though, despite how challenging it sounded, and the Hydro Cannon forming was enough to make him recognise that it was over. He reached for his belt. "Go for it."

Dragon Rage curved around the projectiles to hit blastoise, shelgon making sure he got one last hit in before the Hydro Cannon spelled lights out for him.

He would not need manectric, Max was certain of it. Blastoise had taken too many attacks. "Sceptile, you're up."

The moment he was allowed to, sceptile shot up the hill in a Quick Attack, going left and out of sight of the blastoise still standing in the canyon as the Water-type charged an Ice Beam. Tierno ordered his Pokémon to cover the hillside to hinder sceptile's descent, but Max calmly told sceptile to go in the moment the Ice Beam was done.

The green Pokémon jumped down slightly behind blastoise, avoiding a jet of water sent straight up. He lit his Leaf Blades, kneeling to avoid the punch and going for the Water-type's feet. Blastoise reacted quickly, retreating into his shell and using Rapid Spin, but sceptile hadn't released the tension in his legs, jumping up and over the spinning turtle.

Blastoise was too slow in changing direction, allowing sceptile to land and jerk his tail away before he could be hit, though he kept close to the spinning Pokémon.

Rapid Spin couldn't be sustained forever, and unlike squirtle and wartortle, the water came from the cannons and not elsewhere, meaning Hydro Pump wasn't an option. "Just wait."

Blastoise held out for longer than Max thought possible, but when he came out, sceptile was there, immediately pressing with Leaf Blades, and it was all blastoise could do to block with cannons and shell to protect the more vulnerable parts of his body.

A burst of Ice-type energy exploded on sceptile as blastoise concentrated, forming the start of Ice Beam and then ducking, bringing the attack down on sceptile. In exchange, he took a Leaf Blade to the face as Max's Pokémon ignored the cold entirely.

One Leaf Blade vanished as sceptile tried to grab any part of the Water-type, seeking to drain energy back, but he didn't get it before the a Hydro Cannon started forming, instantly exploding onto the two of them and blocking all view of the fighting Pokémon.

But Max wasn't worried. Soon, blue filtered through the dust, but a third Hydro Cannon, even attempted, taxed the Type a lot, meaning sceptile was safe for maybe fifteen seconds.

Max's Grass-type washed out on the back of a torrential Hydro Pump, but blastoise was worse off; its Torrent glow already wavering just from what sceptile had done to him in the time before. Max could have waited for the boost to start waning even more, but that was not his style. The less time he gave Tierno to think of something, the better. "Finish it."

Quick Attack dodged the Hydro Pump, a Bullet Seed annoyed blastoise just long enough to stop him from retreating into his shell for Rapid Spin, and a cross-cut Leaf Blade to the face knocked Tierno's Pokémon out, sceptile jumping onto him and pushing off for good measure. "The winner of this match: Max Maple!"

He headed back to a dressing room, sending two Pokémon out and checking them over. Swinub was just tired, as expected after just being knocked out by Destiny Bond, and wanted nothing more than to get a few rubs while lazing; something Max was fine in giving. Sceptile, on the other hand, was still pretty active, if a little scraped here and there. "You did great out there, sceptile," Max told his stoic starter, standing on his toes to rub the taller Pokémon's head. Sceptile sat down in response, enjoying the knuckles massaging his skull. "Didn't show too much and still won handily."

A few minutes later, as Max was brushing through swinub's fur with a pocket brush – the Ice-type having insisted on getting a bit of grooming in and knowing that Max had the foldable brush with him – a knock on the door made him look up. "Yeah?"

The door opened, and Tierno nearly bounced in, Trevor following in his wake. "See, I told you he was here!" Max's opponent triumphantly told the orange-haired boy. "Man, you really beat me, huh. That shelgon took a beating!"

"You made it easy for me," Max said as he got up, rolling his ankle to get rid of a weird feeling. "You always end with raichu and blastoise and you like using powerful attacks. That's what shelgon Is good against."

"But you knew blastoise knew Ice Beam," Trevor said, a camera in his left hand. "Why did you keep shelgon in? Why did you send sceptile out? They're weak to Ice. Isn't that too risky? Serena said you have a manectric."

Max shook his head, remembering something he had observed the day before. "Both of you… Sorry if I'm too blunt," he said belatedly, realising that he was going to be critiquing them on their style. "Both of you don't use Pokémon movement enough. You especially, Tierno. You didn't use raichu's speed to run circles around shelgon, so he could actually block everything he wanted to. It's a big weakness for shelgon, but if you don't use it..." He turned to Trevor. "Same for blastoise. You could've used charizard's mobility a lot more yesterday. Maybe not win, but just power isn't enough to overcome type advantage on equally skilled Pokémon."

Silence hung in the room, expressions guarded as Max wondered if he had been too harsh, but then Tierno nodded. "He has a point, Trevs. Viola said the same, remember? When we got our eighth badge?"

"Fighting isn't all about type advantage or which Pokémon is more powerful," Max continued when Trevor didn't reply. "I learned that from a friend a few years ago. He actually was in the same situation as you two yesterday. Charizard against blastoise. His charizard won." He ignored the gasp of surprise. "Just using mobility, just manoeuvring around your opponent if you're the more mobile one… That's worth a lot. That's how Lance's Pokémon were able to hold off yveltal. Just don't be where the attack is."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Switching Pokémon is allowed at any time in all Kalos League battles, except when returning a Pokémon takes the Pokémon out of the path of an attack that would have knocked it out in the referee's eyes. However, Trainers cannot switch out continuously at the start of a battle. Once both Trainers have switched Pokémon twice, the battle must proceed 45 seconds or until a knock-out, whichever comes first, before an additional switch is allowed. This goes for any match, no matter the format._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Tierno's cacnea, again, isn't canon, but it is a Pokémon that lends itself well to Tierno's dance-related style. In the games, he has a roserade and a talonflame to go with his crawdaunt (which is referenced), but after deciding on Hugo's team in the planning stage of the tournament, I moved away from those two.


	38. Prudent Positioning

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 38: Prudent Positioning**

Gary had gotten into contact with Professor Sycamore, and the Professor had apparently granted him the run of the laboratory for one evening. Danny and Max Teleported straight into the foyer – with permission – before walking down to the greenhouse, which was a lot fuller than before. Some kind of weighing machine had been carted in, looking just familiar enough for Danny to realise what it was. A foam wall had also been set up, with markings indicating height on both sides: feet and inches on the left, centimetres on the right. Cameras were pointing at both areas, as well as one or two at a round table off to the side. There was a smaller table as well, holding only a laptop.

They'd had about a minute to check everything when the door opened again. "Yo," Gary greeted them, taking a bit from an apple a moment after. "Heard you're both through to the round of sixteen. Did you really need three Pokémon for dancer boy, Max?" he continued afterwards.

"Destiny Bond tied cacnea and swinub," Max replied easily as he walked over to the table with the laptop. "That wasn't part of the plan." He picked up a small round object; a long cable attaching it to the laptop. "What's this?"

"Omnidirectional microphone," Gary replied, taking it from Max and placing it in the middle of the larger table. "I'd like to record the audio as we talk. Makes it easier for me; means I don't have to recall everything. It is an extra couple paragraphs in the form, though."

As on cue, he picked up several sheets of paper, quickly separating them with a finger and handing three stapled pages each to them. "Standard stuff in there?" Danny asked as he started skimming. "You skipped the layman explanation."

"Standard form, and yeah, skipped that. You probably know the terminology, and if it's not needed, no need for it to be there," Gary said as Danny skipped to the end, spotting the date already filled in. "You'd be identifiable by definition. Not a lot of thirteen year old boys with Mega Evolution out there."

Danny and Max chuckled. "Might as well put our names in it in full," Max quipped as he fished a pen from his pocket, signing the form a few seconds later. "So, what have you got planned? Apart from the obvious."

"I've got a general guide of what I want to ask," Gary replied, taking a folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket. "We'll do the interview first. Both of you at the same time, mind. Took me a most of last night to convince Gramps of that…" he added, rolling his eyes. "Then some measurements and pictures of manectric and aggron. Height and weight, Mega Evolved and not."

It sounded good to Danny, and Max looked like he agreed. He was missing one thing, though. "No attack strength comparison?"

Gary shrugged as he accepted the forms. "It's easy to test aggron's strength, but doing that for manectric is more trouble than it's worth for now. Materials take time to collect."

That made sense to Danny. You probably needed some high quality measuring instruments for that, just to be able to test the output without frying the machines, and those weren't things generally kept in a laboratory. There was only so much room to store everything, as his uncle had lamented a few times.

They sat down at the table after Gary had made sure the microphone was working as it should. Danny saw Gary sigh, a roll of his eyes following. "This is Gary Oak interviewing Danny Birch and Max Maple about Mega Evolution. Both subjects have one Pokémon that has achieved Mega Evolution, and as of this recording, none of their other Pokémon are known to have the capability to Mega Evolve." He paused, looking down. "In the order I named you, please state which Mega Stone is in your possession."

"I have an Aggronite," Danny said.

"And I have a Manectite," Max added.

"This interview will consist of several predetermined questions about the Mega Stones, the Mega Evolution itself, and the Trainer-Pokémon bond. Additional questions may be asked in response to what is said," Gary continued reciting what was on his sheet. "How did you come by your respective Mega Stones and the Key Stones you use to achieve Mega Evolution?"

Danny had to stop a snigger when he saw Gary mime crumpling the sheet and throwing it away. He did not like the formality, that much was clear.

"I was given the Aggronite in early October," he started, figuring Max's story would cause a few more questions than his. "Champion Diantha of Kalos gave it to me for..." What had she said again? "For helping to keep Kalos safe while Team Flare was trying to take over."

"To clarify," Max started before Gary could, "this is the attempt of Team Flare to destroy Kalos with the help of an awakened yveltal and xerneas on September 11th."

A gesture from the older teen told Danny to continue. "I received my Key Stone after first achieving Mega Evolution. Professor Sycamore of Kalos gave it to me." In this very greenhouse, about twenty feet to their right, if he wasn't mistaken.

"Thank you, Danny. Max?"

"I found the Manectite in the hills just outside of Shalour City. My vulpix had run there, and I followed her." Max paused, and Danny could see him think if he should include the note. "I took the Key Stone from a safe while I was inside Team Flare's base, before yveltal and xerneas awakened."

"By found, do you mean as part of an unfinished excavation, or did you uncover it yourself, or..."

"The Mega Stone was just lying there," Max admitted, shrugging. "No excavation in sight, but I didn't check if there had been one… The stone is slightly damaged, so it's possible it was caught in some rock slide or something," he added, lying through his teeth without even blinking an eye.

It was impressive, if a little unnerving. Gary also seemed like he wanted to know more, but he didn't press. "How long did it take you to achieve Mega Evolution?"

"Two-and-a-half weeks of daily practice," Danny said, deciding that they should keep the order the same, if only to make it easier for Gary. "The bond was there, but our thoughts and feelings weren't in tune enough."

"A bit above average from what's been reported," Gary said as he made a note on the paper. "Still within standard deviation, though." He turned to Max, rolling his eyes pre-emptively. "Max?"

Danny had the feeling Gary already knew part of the answer, but it had to be on record anyway. "Tried once in May, had the same as Danny mentioned," Max stated. "Then it just happened in the Team Flare base without consciously trying. Took better part of a week after that to make it work on demand."

"For the record," Gary started drily, "Mega Evolution as a threat response wasn't proven to exist prior to that day. It had been presumed to exist, but given the rarity and the requirements, it was impossible to set up a controlled trial for it." He gestured minutely, indicating he wasn't done yet. "Was the prior Mega Evolution a help or a hindrance in triggering the Mega Evolution consciously?"

Danny noticed Max's shrug in the left of his vision. "It was nice to know I could do it, but annoying because it wasn't working. A little bit of both?"

"A little bit of both sounds accurate, then," Gary agreed. "It's not happened before that someone lost the ability to use Mega Evolution. Yet another thing you're unique in."

The scowl on Max's face was only half-faked, Danny thought. "Great, more notoriety. Am I going to have to wear sunglasses and a hat to avoid being recognised now? In the Home Regions, I mean."

"Or you could just not care about what the plebeians do when they try to feel relevant," Gary remarked casually. "Works for me. Anyway, I assume the actual trigger you use now is similar to the one that caused the initial Mega Evolution?"

Max's eyes went skyward as he thought, probably trying to remember. "Yeah," he said at length. "Close enough."

"Now, can you describe what the bond feels like…"

 **~~§~~§~~**

It was near nightfall when Danny was finally up for his battle in the round of sixteen; the last of them. Why the Conference had mandatory breaks in between battles now that there were only eight, he had no idea, and them being twenty minutes long was even more ridiculous. Max had complained as well, and Danny was reasonably certain his friend had taken out a tiny bit of his frustration on the Trainer he had faced in his match.

Winning without losing a Pokémon; xatu taking out two and clefairy mopping up in between; was probably not something Danny was going to do. He'd be glad if he had the option to use Mega aggron as the final Pokémon in his battle. He'd hoped to be able to use him the day before, in the round of thirty two, but he'd been facing a haunter. The Ghost-type would have floated circles around aggron, and even if it had been a bit tired after taking out spritzee, there was no way it was ever going to be close enough to be hit by anything physical.

Swampert had made pretty short work of it, though.

But that was later, and this was now. Danny held up a Pokéball so the referee could see, and at the signal, he released his first Pokémon onto the canyon field; the same that Max had fought on the day before. Helioptile appeared, tensing as she landed, ready to fight the Pokémon at the other end.

Furfrou was probably good for her. Their fur resisted most physical attacks – something they had found out when trying to catch one for Max's Dad while travelling from Gloire to Lumiose. Sceptile had not been amused. The protection didn't extend to energy attacks, though, and helioptile was all about those.

Well, that, and a new addition to her arsenal. "Sandstorm!" he ordered as the match began, seeing the furfrou break out into a sprint on the other side. Probably wanted to close the distance to fight on its terms instead of helioptile's.

Sand blocked the furfrou from view for a spell, but the strange canine soon came into view again, barrelling down the canyon in an attempt to slam into Danny's Pokémon, but helioptile had already vanished. Ran up the hill to the right, and she was ready for the Normal-type to stop, using the high ground to shock it in all safety.

Fur poofed out in a natural defence mechanism, but it did nothing to hinder the electricity. Helioptile's attack wasn't strong enough to inflict paralysis, however, and furfrou retaliated by sending a small beam of purple and black up the hill; the Dark Pulse narrowly missing helioptile. "Slip away," Danny ordered.

Don't fight equal fights was pretty much Danny's plan for most of his Kalos Pokémon. Especially later in the tournament, like they were now. Both of them were the youngest left by two years after Max's earlier win, and there was no way he was going to beat these older Trainers on just defending and countering when the time was right. Heck, he couldn't even do that to Max.

A quick Flash ensured that furfrou lost track of the helioptile, Sand Veil helping her to vanish to the point that even Danny wasn't certain where the small Pokémon had gone. Not that the hilly layout helped – there were more than a few blind spots.

Furfrou stopped moving, standing still in too obvious a manner. Danny resisted the urge to call for an attack – it looked like a trap. Helioptile thought the same, as she stayed hidden for at least ten seconds.

And then he saw a field of grass erupt across the visible hills on the right, proving that it hadn't been a trap, but just furfrou using Grass Knot without being hindered.

At least it wasn't Curse, like Linda had been able to do against Paul last year.

Furfrou shot forward, and Danny saw helioptile try to skid down a far-away hill, barely visible. "Thunderbolt the ground!"

The electricity forced furfrou to stop as shards rained down on it; the white Pokémon turning to the side to shield its face. Helioptile gladly made away after that, skittering up the left hills and sending a small jolt – but bright enough to make furfrou jump back – at her opponent.

It tried for another Grass Knot, but a Razor Wind forced it to back off. Even so, it was too late; and the sharp energy sheared a patch of fur off; the white immediately caught up in whatever was left of the Sandstorm, which wasn't much. "Sandstorm again."

Moments later, Danny could see no Pokémon whatsoever as both had been swallowed by the sand. Flashes of light; yellow and purplish, shot to and fro, but there were no explosions or loud cries that made it obvious what was happening. Even the big screens overhead couldn't show them much, making Danny want to apologise to anyone watching.

Then both Pokémon suddenly reappeared, helioptile flying as furfrou strode after her, but whatever had prompted the trip through the air didn't stop her from landing comfortably. She summoned a Parabolic Charge, using half of it to interfere with a Dark Pulse while the other part struck furfrou, the leeching attack undoing a bit of what had been done to her.

Furfrou barked harshly; and Dark-type energy shot towards helioptile, a wide, almost scythe-like attack, rather than a beam like Dark Pulse. It flew low by the ground, forcing the small Electric-type to jump over the attack, charging a Thunderbolt and barely stopping a Dark Pulse in time.

But helioptile's electricity did overpower the Dark Pulse. "Push it!" Danny ordered, and furfrou quickly broke the connection, instead jumping up.

Danny could pretty much hear Max screaming in his ear to use it, and so he ordered helioptile to use Razor Wind. It wasn't the strongest attack ever; power heavily sacrificed for speed, but the aim was true and excellently timed.

And furfrou had to adjust itself to not buckle as its left front leg was suddenly slashed into. "Keep at it."

From there, the battle turned into a slog. Furfrou was careful to never leave the ground so it wasn't caught off-guard like it had been. There was a slight drag to its run when it tried to slam itself into helioptile, but nothing that made a real difference. Danny's Pokémon was fast enough to avoid it anyway, and the only hits it landed were glancing: one diluted Dark Pulse, one far edge of that other Dark-type attack, and a couple of debris showers.

Helioptile landed a lot more hits, but they were less powerful. Parabolic Charge did a lot of work in keeping her fit, while the Sandstorm did whittle away at the furfrou over time. It wasn't a common strategy, Danny gathered from the commentary, but it was an effective one as furfrou just couldn't quite get on target enough.

Why the opponent didn't switch out, Danny didn't know, but he wasn't complaining.

Eventually, he saw furfrou stride to a halt near him, and its entire fur – the parts that weren't singed or cut – looked matted from sweat. "One more time," he told helioptile, who was hiding atop the hill. Furfrou had lost her again, between Flash and Sandstorm.

The Thunderbolt looked fairly weak, too, but it was enough to finally take the furfrou out after nearly ten minutes of hide and seek. Helioptile made her way down as well; and while she looked physically okay, her breaths seemed be faster than normal, and faint, weak, sparks danced on the tips of her ears.

Danny could return her, especially since the second Pokémon on the other end was a marowak. But at the same time, he knew that she was close to completely drained of electricity. She needed some time hooked up to a Pokémon Center machine, or some help from another Electric-type. Neither was really an option. "Might as well see what marowak can do," he muttered. "Just Razor Winds. Let the sand go."

Marowak rushed in, a bit slower than furfrou had been, head downturned. Its skull allowed it to shrug off a Razor Wind with impunity, and it threw the bone club ahead of itself, aiming for helioptile.

The Electric-type blasted it off-course with a quick jolt, causing it to land in the hillside to the left, but she paid for it as marowak's shoulder connected. The body check sent her to the ground, giving marowak enough time to jump away and collect the bone, which was immediately flung again. A Protect caused it to fly away in another direction for the second time in ten seconds, but again, marowak was on helioptile the moment after.

The marowak was immune to electricity, but the ground wasn't. "Blast the ground!"

And then the electricity was redirected into marowak anyway. Lightningrod neutralising most of the attempt. It was always a gamble, and one that didn't work out, but he'd gotten good information.

Helioptile was returned before she hit the ground, a wave of his hand indicating that yes, it was a forfeit. She'd given her all and beyond, executing the hit and run moves perfectly.

Time for something else, and Danny allowed a grin to appear on his face. He hadn't used froslass yet so far, but this was too good an opportunity.

He did feel a tiny bit sorry for the audience as froslass summoned a Hail before swerving out of the way of the Stone Edge. At least this was easier to see in, but froslass was also better at hiding. Danny could have followed her – he knew what to look out for – but Max had told him not to do that a while back. Something about not giving your opponents more hints than they needed. "Freeze the field."

The hail falling down intensified, telling Danny that froslass was going for a Blizzard to do that. Marowak tried to find her, a Stone Edge spreading in all directions to do that, but none hit; the angle of the rocks actually too high.

Froslass became fully visible five feet in front of Danny, separated only by the shield, and with a twirl, she blasted the full force of winter down the canyon.

He saw marowak do something to protect itself, but he wasn't able to see what exactly as the snowstorm washed over the field, white covering everything.

When it stopped, Danny immediately noticed the rocks that had appeared. Covered in ice, sure, but the Rock Tomb had shielded marowak from the attack itself, and the shelter also gave it more ammunition. A quick shattering and a veritable hailstorm of rocks rained down on froslass's position. She avoided the worst of it with grace; only the edges of the attack hitting her, and in return, she fired a Shadow Ball.

One that marowak deflected upwards with a swing of its club.

Froslass, no fool she, followed it up with an Ice Beam, forcing marowak to use Rock Tomb to stop it. The stone shattered, but the Pokémon that had called it up was nowhere near, and it took Danny a moment to realise it had run up the hill into unfrozen grass. "Stay level with it."

The Ice-type flew up; cold currents trailing after her as she did so, while marowak called up a quick Rock Tomb that was shattered by a swing of its club. A Stone Edge started to form, but it was held in check for a moment; the pebbles and shards circling around the Ground-type.

Froslass flew in, opting to try and weave through the rocks in order to deliver a Confuse Ray right to marowak. A quick throw of the club connected; the Bonemerang on her skirt a sacrifice to ensure that froslass got her attack through.

Sadly, marowak was still sharp enough to actually catch the bone coming back. Danny's Pokémon made herself scarce in the Hail, increasing the intensity on it as she did so. Danny tracked her movement without moving his head, and he also noticed the Hail intensifying beyond what was normal. "Follow with Shadow Ball."

Blizzard froze the hill, froslass actually making sure that the ice from this attack was attached to that of the first one. It made the Rock Tomb block – another cover all-around marowak, except Danny thought it wasn't completely closed off – more effective, but it also reduced marowak's already limited mobility.

Shadow Ball accidentally met the rock at the same time as the Ground-type shattered the slab itself, the two attacks essentially cancelling each other out. A wave of Ghostly energy washed over marowak, but it was weak, and only seemingly removed the confusion from its system.

Note to self, stop ordering Shadow Balls. They weren't working.

He told froslass to let marowak take the initiative, figuring that the Hail and generally better fitness of the Ice-type would force his opponent to start being more aggressive, and he wasn't disappointed when marowak started shattering the frozen ground to create an improvised Ice Shard attack. However, from where it stood, it was unable to move too much or risk falling flat, which allowed for froslass to avoid the attacks easily on top of her Snow Veil already making it hard for marowak to hit.

The first volley sailed over her by about five feet, while the second volley was worse, missing catastrophically and only going unpunished because froslass wasn't expecting it herself.

The ice did allow marowak to slide down in rapid fashion, but froslass saw it happen, immediately starting to gather the energy for Blizzard, and the third such attack made a complete winter wonderland of the arena, though marowak again avoided the worst of the cold weather by encasing itself in rock.

Between the continuous Rock Tombs and the earlier deflection, it felt a lot like fighting Max's baltoy with a hint of his sceptile. Except slower, and unable to actually get close because of it. "Powder Snow."

Froslass flew down, accelerating and gathering tiny amounts of ice in her wake, almost diamond dust-like in size. The fine mist continued on as froslass flew up to avoid a Bonemerang, but a surprise burst of flame evaporated most of the attack before it could get inside marowak's protective skull.

A quick check of the Pokédex while froslass opened up the ice box with a pair of Ice Beams that were barely intercepted in time told Danny that even regular marowak were apparently capable of learning Flamethrower. Who knew.

At the same time, the continued time spent in the Hail, as well as the low temperatures and the Ice attacks, was taking its toll on the Bone Keeper Pokémon. Its defending was sloppier than it had been, and only just in time as well. One more good attack would probably do it. "Finish it," Danny ordered calmly.

Froslass chose to go for another Blizzard; a sign of how good she still felt despite it already being her fourth. She really was in her element, drawing much of the Hail into it as she hovered about seven feet above the ground about half the arena away from marowak, who was not doing anything visible to try and stop her.

The reason for that became apparent as soon as the Blizzard was unleashed. A large spike shot up from underground, reaching froslass and pushing her back, even as the long-distance Rock Tomb that Danny had given it time to set up for also left it defenceless from having to concentrate on the last move. He recognised the strategy – best to weaken the remaining Pokémon as much as possible – but it did mean there was only one Pokémon left to beat Danny's two, and he had a free pick left.

Froslass looked okay enough to continue as well. A lot better than helioptile had, at least. She should have been higher up, though, but that was his mistake for not realising that the marowak might have had something up its sleeve.

"Let the hail lapse," Danny told froslass as soon as he saw the enemy Pokémon come out on the far left hills. There was only one reason for anyone to send out a Fighting-type against a Ghost, and as red light washed over pretty much half the field, that made itself known. Froslass managed to avoid the first Foresight, but the second hit, meaning that Snow Veil was nullified for the next minute or two, along with phasing out of the physical world like Ghosts could.

Hitmontop started its spinning motion, and the reason why his opponent had sent him out up high became known immediately. The ice allowed the spinning top to accelerate greatly, causing an Ice Beam to miss horrendously as froslass completely underestimated the speed at which he moved. An Icy Wind was all she could muster to hinder as the Fighting-type flew at her; a dodge too risky. The cold hit, but a one-two kick knocked her down to the ground; the Ice-type righting herself inches away from contact as hitmontop landed behind her, summoning a Stone Edge as he did so.

Froslass did away with those through an intense burst of ice – something she must have stolen from Max's swinub – but hitmontop was upon her immediately after, rolling at her before jumping up into a kick, hitting her and sending her flying back once more. This time, she did hit the ground, bouncing up again into a levitating position.

"Shadow Ball down!" Danny ordered, hoping to disrupt the hitmontop's attacks.

Surprisingly, it worked; a barrage of ice and stone hindering hitmontop just enough for his kick to fall just short of froslass, allowing her to zoom up. A Stone Edge was sent after her, but she traded being hit by that for getting a hit in on hitmontop with Ice Beam.

The Handstand Pokémon resumed his spinning, jumping into the improvised icy half pipe – how hadn't Danny realised that earlier? - and gathering speed while froslass gathered what looked like a Blizzard in the same place.

Hitmontop came in, travelling straight into the building Blizzard, and Danny caught a glint of eyes glowing before a series of quick punches and kicks, jabs and swipes assaulted froslass. The Close Combat caused her to lose control of the cold, though, and a moment later, a final kick flung her away as hitmontop fell. He barely stuck the landing, but froslass was out.

Danny took a good look at hitmontop, running through the Pokémon he had left. Spritzee could have worked normally, but the ice made the Fighting-type too fast, and she had no way of breaking it. Diggersby wanted to fight sort of up close, which was a bad idea against a hand-to-hand – or feet-to-feet – master. That left swampert and aggron, both of whom were perfectly capable of ruining the field and hitmontop's mobility.

He only needed a moment to think. He'd wanted to do this the round before, but the Pokémon hadn't been right. This time, there wasn't anything stopping him. Even the prospect of Max wondering why he did it when it probably was overkill did little. "Aggron, let's go!"

Then, Danny focused on the announcer as his own hand fiddled with the top button on his polo shirt, waiting for the man to spot the obvious. "Is that…" came a voice seeping with disbelief. "It cannot be! Surely that cannot be a Mega Stone!"

"It is one," Danny spoke into the microphone as he brought his necklace with the starburst Key Stone pendant out. He didn't need to show it, but it felt right to do that.

Steel settled as Mega aggron – sleek, shiny, powerful – roared. The announcer struggled to make himself heard over the audience. Danny heard vague exclamations, at least one of which – that he was the youngest to be able to Mega Evolve – was false, but they didn't matter. There was a goal, and that was to remove the hitmontop from the field.

An Earthquake shook the entire field, would have shaken the entire stadium had it not been for the shielding, which flared harshly as the tremors cracked the ice and ground underneath, creating several crevasses. Hitmontop was adept at avoiding them, but in the process, he ended up only thirty feet away from aggron.

Whatever ice was left, aggron cared not. The hitmontop dodged the Iron Head by ducking away, but aggron planted his feet down before forcing the ice and ground to move with them as he swung his tail, catching the hitmontop on the tip and sending it into a hill.

Another Earthquake buried hitmontop, and a red beam pierced through the soil even before the referee could rule Danny's victory.

He let the bond lapse, and the cold calm that came with the Mega Evolution made way for satisfaction. The top eight was here for him and Max both.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Serena slipped out of their shared room, thankful that the door didn't creak like it sometimes did. Like it had done a few minutes earlier, when one of the boys had gone out, rousing her from light sleep.

She wondered who it was. It could be Max doing something secretive again. As much as he denied it, Serena and Danny both knew that the younger boy had snuck out late before, talking to xerneas knew who. His sister was the most normal of the options, but it wouldn't surprise Serena if he had called the Kanto Champion either. Even with Team Flare gone. She had also seen him chat to Professor Oak before, not too long ago.

Surprisingly, it was Danny, who nearly bumped into her as she opened the door to the main lobby. "Serena?" he asked, a mug of something – warm milk, she smelled – in his left hand. "What are you doing up?"

"Could ask the same of you," Serena replied. "Don't tell me you've stayed up until now."

Danny turned around, Serena following, and she saw the on-duty Nurse Joy cock her head slightly as they walked to a sofa. "Had a… Dunno if it's a nightmare, but not a _good_ dream," he admitted after they'd sat down. "Woke me up, and then I did something wrong and my calf hurt. Some kind of spasm," he said, grimacing as he put his right hand on his right calf. "Decided to walk a bit."

She'd never had a thing like that happen, but then again, up until April or so, she'd occasionally slept with a pillow between her knees to help support her weak knee and not wake her up during the night. "What was the dream about?"

The teen shrugged, before swiping at his hair. "Little bit of everything. Lysandre, yveltal, Mt. Pyre, Petalburg. I didn't feel, y'know… Scared when I woke up, but it wasn't great either."

Serena wasn't sure she bought it. Boys didn't like admitting they were weak, she knew that from some place or another, and Max in particular had always been about putting up a brave face. She figured Danny was the same, just with a lot less to hide. "Team Flare's in prison now. They can't do anything to us any longer."

Danny shook his head. "Not just Team Flare. There's still that..." A furtive glance, but Nurse Joy wasn't around at the moment, nor was anyone else. "The thing the ninetales spoke about. Y'know. The thing in Hoenn?" he added when Serena drew a blank.

Serena hadn't forgotten about the attacks in Hoenn. Xerneas knew it was in the news she read or heard about often enough, but she had forgotten about the ninetales on Mt. Pyre. And, if truth be told… "You sure they weren't trying to scare you?" she replied in the same whisper that Danny had used.

"And why would the ninetales just hand one of their young to Max?" Danny replied, slightly sarcastically. "Not out of the goodness of their own heart – you've read the stories as well. And you know Max. If he finds out who is responsible… I hope to arceus I can convince him to not go and fight them. Sure didn't work in Coumarine…."

Serena understood. Max was all about taking the fight to evil-doers, and it was personal on top of that.

They sat in silence for a minute or two, Danny waiting for his milk to cool down to drinkable as Serena just thought about nothing in particular. "I don't regret coming here to Kalos, though."

"What?" Serena asked, surprised by the sudden sentence.

"Even if we had all these injuries, all these fights, all of everything that Team Flare did… It was great here. Made new friends," he said, smiling and making Serena roll her eyes at his cheesy statement. "Got to know old classmates better. Learned a _lot_ about Pokémon, became a better Trainer."

"You could've done that elsewhere," Serena pointed out. "Without having your elbow broken or your head bleeding."

Danny brought a hand to his right temple, fingers searching for the small scar from the wound he'd gotten in Durocor. "Wouldn't be the same," he said softly. "It… There's something Dad said a week or two ago. Every single thing you go through makes you who you are. A year ago, I was..." Danny trailed off, looking into nothing. "If I'd heard about what I'd go through… I would have run away. I had no idea of how to deal with everything."

"But we did." Serena wasn't really sure where Danny was going with this.

Danny smiled at her; Serena unsure what he meant by it. "That's it. You and I didn't know, but we did anyway. We learned from it. All of us got better at dealing with it, and now we're here." He brought the hand that had been on his temple to his chest, where the necklace with his Key Stone would normally be. Right now, there was only the royal blue pyjama shirt, though. "We got through everything. I hope it was the last I'll have to do with people like that in my life, but somehow, I doubt it."

Serena agreed wholeheartedly. On both counts. "Trouble seems to find you even when you're not looking for it," she said, remembering the Glittering Cave and even Coumarine counted at least a bit. And then there was the entire New Mauville thing, the poacher that got Danny a masquerain, and Mt. Pyre. "I wouldn't mind having a bit of quiet wherever I go next, though."

"If you're going alone, that's probably what's going to happen," Danny said, smiling to take away any sting. He took a long sip from his milk. "Might not want to go to Hoenn, though. It seems… I think I'm just going to keep froslass, dusclops, and drapion at my uncle's. Just in case."

"Dad told me to do the same," came a voice from behind them, and both of the teenagers on the bench shot up. The only reason the milk didn't spill was because Danny had already drained half of it, Serena noticed. "Didn't think you were the one up first, Danny."

"It happens," Danny shot back, more than slightly annoyed from the sound of it. "And how long have you been there?"

"Just now," Max said, sitting down and rubbing his eyes. He'd foregone the glasses, making him look even younger than he already did. Hell, Serena had found out she was taller than he was just a few hours back. "Heard someone leave – Serena, I guess – and took a few minutes to decide if I wanted to follow. And a few minutes to walk here..."

"Your own fault for not grabbing your glasses," Danny replied. "You going to leave your Pokémon with Uncle?"

"No," was not the reply Serena or probably Danny expected. "Dad's wrong, and it's just stupid. None of the attacks have struck in the same place twice either. I bet they're safer with me than at the lab." The vehement words were followed by a yawn. "C'mon. Let's go to bed. Big battles tomorrow. Today. Whatever."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max took a deep breath before walking out onto the walkway that led to his podium. As he did, he saw and felt the spotlights swivel onto him, hearing the announcer quickly list his previous results over the din that was a full stadium applauding, cheering, and the like. The atmosphere was imposing enough that he felt a tiny ball of nerves settle in his stomach, but it only lasted for a second. Then, he steeled himself, pushing nerves and doubt away.

He had come this far on pure merit, and he could go further, he knew it. He had yet to use manectric – to her fond annoyance – and especially after the previous round, which had been the third-youngest remaining participant being unable to deal with the movement shenanigans that xatu and clefairy had unleashed upon him, he felt certain that this round should end in a victory as well.

Not that his opponent was bad. Max was fairly sure Lauren was good; the tanned Alolan girl having shown pretty creative strategies to deal with her opponent in her own round of 16 match. She was the current third-youngest left; not that _that_ meant much in a field of eight, or seven after the first quarter final. From what Max had seen, she preferred striking fast, but with a lot of feinting involved.

He could work with that.

The field was city-like this time; something that looked like cobblestone covering most of the arena; a stream of water – a canal, except the water was still – dissecting the area. Two bridges connected the separate masses, low and without any guard rail or stone to block a Pokémon from being thrown into the water.

The first Pokémon he selected was espurr, while his opponent sent out a… A seviper she would immediately be swapping out. _That_ was definitely a first for him, having the opponent switch before an attack was even ordered, but she was allowed to, and Max felt okay letting her do it.

Twenty seconds and a quick check of the Pokédex later, he, too, was switching out. Alolan persian were Dark-types after all, and espurr just didn't have the moves to beat it, Max thought. Perhaps that would be possible later, once the field had been roughed up a bit, but espurr herself would struggle in creating enough debris for her to use against a foe that was immune to psionic energy.

Poliwhirl would work, though. Maybe try to use the canal to create an advantage, maybe soak the field for manectric later, and persian would be fearful to get in close lest it got blasted with high-pressure jets of water at close range.

He had not counted on the Thunderbolt, though he really should have. For jirachi's sake, he'd seen Tyson's meowth do that three years ago. Poliwhirl avoided it, though some chips flew up, bouncing off of her slimy body. "Get it wet."

Splashing the feline's coat with water – somehow – would turn Thunderbolts into a risky proposition for the persian, but it wasn't an easy task. A Bubblebeam was dodged, and poliwhirl had to do the same to a retaliatory Thunderbolt herself. Both Pokémon moved closer to give the other less time to dodge and for the attacks to have more power to them.

The persian, by virtue of having moved earlier and more, had ended up near the canal, maybe four feet away. Bad idea. "Splash it."

A sweeping Bubblebeam crashed into the still water, but Persian managed to avoid the splash, crossing the canal the moment the attack stopped. From the leap, it crouched, then jumping forward with a snarl and a Night Slash on the right front paw.

A small mass of Bubbles forced the feline away as it averted its head to not get water in its eyes. Even so, it circled left, going back in after completing a quarter circle. A paw tried to sweep poliwhirl's legs, but the blue Pokémon was faster, flipping backwards. Another mass of Bubbles formed, though the persian hadn't gone in.

A blurring motion and nine persian suddenly faced poliwhirl, tails glowing before they launched a Swift. "Forward!" Max ordered, and poliwhirl obeyed instantly, rolling into two attacks and causing the other seven, including the real one, to miss. "Aaaaand…. Up."

The jump was perfectly timed, avoiding the three most likely real cats as they moved in. Persian had only been able to get them to mirror its own moves, instead of moving them autonomously as some Double Team users could do. It meant that changing the focal point – poliwhirl's position – disrupted the attack, which allowed Max to guess which one was real.

A Bubblebeam nearly hit persian as poliwhirl fell, the water forcing the real cat away in a hurry. It turned on a dime about thirty feet onward, fur crackling with electricity, but the attack too slow in forming to be an actual problem for poliwhirl. She was given enough time to land, and enough time to dodge, rolling out of the way and being given just enough time to throw a Rain Dance orb upwards.

If she couldn't get persian wet normally, this would do it.

The Dark-type kept at a distance, prowling around, occasionally trying to bait out a defence by making a quick in-out feint, but poliwhirl never reacted with more than the initial stages of her Bubble; her fastest attack to form.

As the rain overhead worsened, the feline suddenly used a Power Gem. It formed fast, and poliwhirl was caught slightly off-guard, the attack clipping her on the shoulder and making her spin. She swung with the momentum, starting a Water Gun that came back around to force the persian away with a harsh hiss. "Your turn now," Max ordered calmly.

And suddenly, poliwhirl, using the wet stones to her advantage, rushed towards the persian. The skate-like movement caught the cat off-guard, and only a quick jump saved her from an incoming fist, but the jump left it unprotected in the air, and poliwhirl bent backwards to launch a quick Water Pulse. It met a Power Gem, the explosion _just_ far enough away from persian that it did nothing, but that was good for her, because it meant the cat's positioning was still predictable. A thin, but potent, Water Gun swept left from where persian landed, catching it and sweeping it onto the ground as the front paws were barraged with water.

Swift blocked Bubblebeam while the persian got up, an expressive wave of the tail calling the stars forth, but it could not block the more focused Water Gun, persian eating it in its flank as it turned away, taking a few steps sideways because of it. Then, it rushed forward with Night Slash ready, dashing through the rain and proving it was as manoeuvrable as it had been without the rain.

Three times it feinted, and at the third, poliwhirl bit, unleashing Bubbles that allowed for the cat to quickly sneak around and swipe at her feet.

She fell, but she managed to get a hand in persian's fur, dragging it down with her. Max suppressed a wince at that, being proven right a moment later when electricity lit up the arena, grounding into poliwhirl.

Luckily, the wet fur also made it very uncomfortable for persian, and that gave poliwhirl just enough time to steel herself, ignoring the tremors racking her body just long enough to send a weak Water Pulse the one foot it had to cross. A shriek told the story of persian retreating, allowing Max's Pokémon to get back on her feet, looking steadier by the second.

"Time to press," Max told poliwhirl as the Classy Cat Pokémon started to prowl around her once again, its back to the canal.

She stepped it up a notch, leading Water Pulses and forcing persian to adjust quickly or be hit, as she started closing the distance herself.

Max saw what poliwhirl was doing, and he approved. With its back to the canal and poliwhirl attacking relentlessly, the obvious way out of the situation was either to jump – which would be exploited, poliwhirl had shown that – or for the cat to lash out towards her.

It was the latter, but a Water Gun was ready, blasting persian straight into the canal. Poliwhirl dove after it, and that was probably that. Max's Pokémon made sure the cat couldn't be returned – probably by yanking it further under water as much as she could, keeping the fight in her territory.

There was a futile Thunderbolt, but that probably hurt the persian as much as it did poliwhirl.

Poliwhirl jumped out of the water, slightly more battered than she had been, but less than persian, which floated up as it was knocked out. "Good work," Max said, and from the happy little dance, he gathered that his Pokémon agreed.

The second Pokémon was a chimecho. Apparently, Lauren didn't want to put seviper up against poliwhirl either. It sort of made him wonder why she had selected the Poison-type to begin with.

It opened with a Confusion, but from that range… The grab was ineffective; poliwhirl diving back into the water and immediately swimming under the bridge to dodge a Shadow Ball.

Then chimecho started chanting under its breath, a pinprick of green forming in front of itself. It wasn't Energy Ball, but that was about as much as Max could see.

It was also a stationary target, and poliwhirl went for it with a Water Pulse into Bubblebeam combination. Chimecho was buffeted by the attacks, but they didn't break its concentration, and a second Water Pulse soon met an expanding wave of transparent blue-green.

And chimecho moved out of its way faster than Max had ever seen a chimecho move.

The announcer helpfully told him what it was before he could go for his Pokédex; at the same time as the area expanded to cover the canal, also dipping under the water's surface. Trick Room did weird stuff to Pokémon trying to exert force for anything physical, including movement, and Lauren probably wanted to use that to negate poliwhirl's slipperiness in water.

It worked too; poliwhirl's movement slowed down by at least half if not more as she dove down, an Energy Ball skimming her head. "Listen," Max started, thinking rapidly, trying to find a way to tell her what was up. "The more you try to move, the slower you'll move. Try moving slowly!"

A moment later, poliwhirl shot out of the water at speeds that Max remembered Ash's pikachu reaching. Chimecho was ready, jabbing psionic energy just enough to tip the Water-type slightly backwards, and Trick Room did the rest. She spun at least three times before landing belly-first, onto the stone, and an Energy Ball hit her before she could get up as well.

The attacks, as well as the drizzle, moved normally. It was just movement that was affected.

Poliwhirl adjusted her roll accordingly, only moving about a quarter of the width before getting up very carefully – or not at all so, Max supposed – immediately launching a Water Pulse that the chimecho managed to avoid with ease, and the attack flew out of the Trick Room field.

It didn't encompass the entire field, and that gave Max an idea, even as poliwhirl barely avoided – on timing, not on movement – another Energy Ball. The attacks were fairly slow to come, and there was an odd recurring shimmer on chimecho in between the attacks.

Did it need to concentrate on holding the Trick Room up? Had to be, Max thought. It reminded him of Gravity, somewhere, and that was also something clefairy couldn't just fire and forget like Imprison.

"Aim at the chimecho, then Body Slam with as little force as you can!"

What happened next was nearly enough to make Max burst out in laughter. Poliwhirl hit chimecho, who had been starting to form an Energy Ball and had been concentrating on that, and both Pokémon crossed the remaining distance to the edge of the Trick Room at what looked like supersonic speeds. Then, as they crossed it, both of them fell down, only regular gravity doing work as all momentum was suddenly gone. Poliwhirl managed to grab the chimecho by the tassel, bringing it down with her, though she wasn't able to put it underneath her.

Still, both hit the ground, and poliwhirl used a Water Gun as she was lying on her side, pushing chimecho back for a moment.

Then the water parted underneath a powerful Psychic; one that grabbed poliwhirl and flung her overhead and back, tumbling as she went through the air. She tried to use a Water Gun to soften the landing, but chimecho was waiting, intercepting the landing path perfectly with Energy Ball.

At least the Trick Room had fallen as well.

Max returned poliwhirl, whispering thanks, and he regarded the field for a second. Any of his physical Pokémon on him; sceptile, doublade, ninjask; would just run into the same problem. That left either manectric, which would mean revealing the Manectite, or espurr. Both of them did use movement in battles, but they had better options for attack from far away.

Actually, with the third Pokémon forced to be seviper… Espurr wasn't that bad. It kept his own options open as well, which was one of the reasons Max never liked switching in three-on-three battles. "Espurr, you're up again!"

He sent her out close to chimecho, and espurr wasted no time in creating a Disarming Voice; one that chimecho took in order to form violet energy on itself. Violet flecked with… "Light Screen!"

The Synchronise was dampened by the Light Screen, though the protective barrier shattered completely under the strain. It still threw espurr off her feet, but Max's attention was on the chimecho, who was trembling and shaking like crazy. He recognised the symptoms: inexpert use of Synchronoise with too much feedback bouncing back on itself. The fact that it still did all that to the Light Screen and espurr was impressive, but the cost was that the attack drained chimecho of all energy.

Espurr looked like she'd taken a bit of a beating, Max noticed as the grey Pokémon hopped the canal, but not nearly enough to knock her out.

She certainly wasted no time in sending a Psybeam towards the seviper, which slithered away before rearing up and lobbing a few Sludge Bombs over the distance.

Its aim was true, but espurr wasn't immobile enough to fall for lobbing, and she hopped away, the movement faster than her tiny legs would carry her. A Light Screen further protected her from the projectiles, practically daring seviper to come in close, where her Psychic powers were at its height.

The Poison-type obliged after splitting itself in three with a Double Team. One went for the bridge, while the other two sought to jump over the canal at some point. "Concentrate, espurr," Max told his Pokémon.

She snuffed out the real one – the one on the right, jumping the canal – but the Psybeam she sent to intercept it met a slash of the snake's tail; Night Slash nullifying the Psybeam and protecting seviper from being hit. Espurr was not as lucky, and she flew back, bouncing across the stone, but getting up nearly immediately, seeing the seviper strike once more, fangs purple with poison.

Quick as a flash, espurr grabbed enough psionic energy to twist the seviper's face away, causing it to slam into her with its body instead. Max wasn't sure he liked it, but his doubts were extinguished immediately as a pulse of energy threw the seviper up into the air, where it was a sitting duck for the Psybeam to hit. Seviper tried to twist its head away, but in the process, it only managed to put its head in the way. Espurr had been aiming for the snake's middle section, which was the hardest to move out of the way.

She hopped back, allowing gravity to do its work as she gathered some of the debris that had been caused by earlier crashes. It wasn't much, but it was something.

A Bulldoze threatened to interrupt a second Confusion grab-and-hold, but espurr's concentration didn't break, and she took the control of the seviper; even through an awkward landing. It struggled to break free, but it couldn't, to Max's surprise. Either espurr was stronger than he thought, or seviper had been hit harder than he believed. Either way, he fully realised why Lauren had switched the Poison-type out at the start, though he still didn't know why she had sent it out in the first place. "Finish it."

The seviper met stone two times, the hold becoming weaker with each slam, but before it could break free, a powerful psionic push, aided by espurr deliberately raising an ear a minute amount, sent the snake flying into the canal wall with a crash. The snake floated up, but it wasn't able to slither out of the water, and much like persian before it, that was the end. "Seviper has been knocked out. The second semi-finalist is Max Maple!"

The wall of sound that assaulted him as the barriers dropped was every bit as powerful as a Pokémon attack. He returned espurr to send her out on his platform, lifting her up and feeling the grey Pokémon recline into his hands as he did so. She was pretty tired, but… "You were magnificent, espurr," Max told her, and a tired smile was the reply. "You want the pokéball, or..."

The answer was self-explanatory as espurr climbed his left arm, eventually settling in the crook of Max's elbow when he bent it. A vague sensation that made it through the long-sleeved shirt told Max that espurr was using her powers to stay put, and as long as he didn't do strange movements, she'd be able to hang on.

His right hand was free, though, and he used it to wave, a large grin on his face; one that was made larger still when he looked ahead, seeing Danny and Serena wait for him in the tunnel.

He had no idea how they'd managed that. Security was pretty tight.

Espurr was set on a bench before the three of them fell into a fierce hug; both Danny and Serena doing their best to crush the life out of Max. Thankfully, they stopped when he pushed at them. "Top four, and you made it look easy!" Danny mimed holding a microphone under Max's nose. "And, Mr. Maple, how does this make you feel?"

Max swiped at the arm, his cheeks hurting from the continued grinning and laughing. "Go find out yourself," he told Danny as he tapped his own chest with a finger, roughly where Danny's pendant would have hung.

Two hours later, Danny had done just that, with gulpin of all Pokémon finishing off a sawk after his opponent had brought a line-up specifically strong against Mega aggron.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Your plans are permissible. Proceed with the procurement of as many as you can conceivably capture, but don't be reluctant to remove your team from the situation if needed. The protective powers of those Pokémon are well-known, but ill-understood in scope. Caution is crucial._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And that's one cat out of the bag, and both of them in the top four. That'll be explored next chapter.

The Mega aggron public reveal actually wasn't planned for this chapter, but a bit of mid-chapter changing of the opponent line-up (heracross was originally the third Pokémon, and gulpin would win through poison) made it something I couldn't resist.


	39. Brief Respite

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 39: Brief Respite**

Before the Lumiose Conference, Danny had expected the Friday to be a fairly quiet day. He knew Serena had a check-up of her knee to go to, and he suspected Max had made plans to catch up with Clemont. Then, afterwards, they'd probably go to watch some film in the cinema, or just walk the streets of Lumiose to look for something new if the weather was good.

As he shuffled into a room just off a live radio studio, Danny wondered if that was even an option for today any longer. It wasn't even the interview – live, on air, for hundreds of thousands of people to hear! – that would cost them so much time, but the reporters that had largely left them alone since Max and Professor Sycamore made a deal had come back in force. He thought there were still spots in his eyes from the camera flashes that had greeted them as they walked up to the radio building, and he resisted the urge to shake his head.

A middle-aged man walked towards them, introducing himself as the host of the show. Jean-Pierre, as the man was called, was enthusiastic and had done his homework, referencing their results in Ever Grande, Lune Town, and Serena's high finish in Gloire City, and making a nod towards their role in Geosenge by saying that it wouldn't be mentioned if at all possible.

Danny liked that. He'd heard their names attached to that way too much, and it reminded him that they still had to explain everything to their parents. Neither he nor Max were really looking forward to that.

Ten minutes later, after a quick switch over the course of a commercial break and the news, Jean-Pierre started his show with a fairly obvious routine, before switching into the introduction of his guests. "Today is, of course, the Friday of the Lumiose Conference, and in usual tradition, Lumiose Radio has interviews with all the semi-finalists spread throughout the day." The DJ shot them a look. "Normally, we only interview one Trainer at a time, but these two have travelled together ever since they started out in far-away Hoenn. From what I've heard, it's actually hard to find one without the other, but that's not too uncommon. What is, is their strength as Trainers. At not even fourteen years of age, they are the youngest semi-finalists here in Kalos in decades. Welcome, Danny Birch and Max Maple."

"Thank you for having us," Danny said, Max following with something similar. He saw the bar in front of him jump into the pale green, telling him that he'd spoken at the right volume, maybe a bit too softly. It was hard to gauge how sensitive the microphone hanging above and in front of him was.

"Let's start with the first question on, I think, everyone's mind. How did the two of you become strong enough to push this deep into a League on your second League only?" Jean-Pierre asked. "Max?"

The younger of them had signalled that he wanted to speak. "I don't think saying 'lots and lots of practice' counts, right?" Max asked cheekily, drawing a chuckle. "For real… We have a lot more experience with Pokémon than most our age. My father is a Gym Leader in Hoenn. Danny's Uncle is our Professor, and I spent time travelling with my sister and a few others."

"Your sister is a Coordinator, right?" Jean-Pierre asked, though Danny was sure he already knew the answer. Max confirmed it. "Coordinating is a cross between our Showcases and battles that some say started in Hoenn. But she wasn't the only one, was she?"

He _had_ done his homework, and Danny resisted the urge to whistle appreciatively. "Well… The others were a Gym Leader from Kanto and a future League winner… I did learn a lot from them."

"And all this happened when you weren't even eligible for being a Trainer, right?"

"That's right," Max echoed. "This was from when I was just shy of ten – after my sister's twelfth birthday – to when I was eleven and a half."

"Sounds like you lived and breathed Pokémon. I don't imagine you had quite that level of exposure, Danny, but surely you picked up a lot from your uncle."

Danny nodded, before remembering it was a radio interview, meaning that he wasn't visible to anyone listening in. Jean-Pierre smiled, waving him on. "A lot about taking care of Pokémon and about what they can and can't do," he said. "Always supervised, and away from more aggressive Pokémon, but it was a good… A good foundation, I suppose? Enough to know what Max was always talking about."

"Oh? How so?"

"Max has a habit of underselling himself," Danny said, grinning when he saw Max roll his eyes. "He brought a lot of little tricks for training Pokémon that really helped, and after spending so much time with his sister and company, he knew a lot about how battles flowed."

The host raised two fingers in a sign that he wanted to speak up, and Danny held his tongue, even though he could have added a few more things. "It can't be all just imitation and knowledge, though. To be at this level at your age, you are surely highly talented as well?"

"That's what people say," Danny replied truthfully. "But my father always said that talent needs careful nurturing. You can be the most talented kid ever, but if you don't hone your talent, you'll never exploit it to its fullest."

"Wise words, and wiser still to realise that at your age," Jean-Pierre said. "We'll be back after these two songs with more of our interview with the first two semi-finalists in the Lumiose Conference, and remember, if you have any questions, send them in through our website. Perhaps you'll get to ask them later."

Seven minutes and two decent pop songs later, the DJ quickly recapped who were in the studio with him before leading into another question. "One thing that's struck me while watching you is that the both of you have very different styles. You'd expect people who travel together like you do to have the same styles, or at least something similar, but that doesn't appear to be the case. How did that happen?"

"I think my travelling is to blame again," Max admitted after Danny motioned for him to answer. "And my Dad, too. Ash Ketchum – he's the future League winner – always had a very unique style that relied a lot on speedy Pokémon. I saw a lot of that for twenty months, and it rubbed off."

"And children, of course, imitate their parents. What about you, Danny?"

"It was..." he paused for just a second, turning away to cough. "Sorry. It was a bit of an accident, actually. A lot of the early Pokémon I caught just were better off waiting and countering, like aron and gulpin. I didn't really realise I was doing that specifically until a Gym Leader pointed it out to me. It seemed to work, so I kept at it."

"Do you think your knowledge of what Pokémon could and couldn't do helped a lot in creating that style, even subconsciously?"

Danny smiled widely. "Definitely. Some of my old classmates said that they had a lot of trouble figuring out what worked best for them and their Pokémon."

"And you skipped half of that, if not more," Jean-Pierre finished for Danny. "An impressive approach, if not really one that most of our aspiring Trainers can really emulate because of who you are. Do the two of you have any tips for starters who are listening right now? Max?"

Danny suspected he knew roughly what Max was going to say, and from the grin Max wore, he knew that Danny knew. "Take your time to get to know your Pokémon as individuals and start working on a style that fits with what you like. Then practice. A lot."

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," came a knowing remark, and Max inclined his head in agreement. "And what about you, Danny?"

"Travel together," he replied instantly. "I stayed home for a month to wait for Max, and it's been the best decision I ever made. It was easier for both of us when we were out for the first… First-ish," he amended, "time, and you always have someone to help you with getting better. I wouldn't have been here without Max as a goal to reach."

That caused Jean-Pierre to raise an eyebrow. "We'll explore that after this next song," he said, taking his headset off after pressing a button, and signalling for them to do the same. "One thing I forgot to ask… Do you want to do your songs in a certain order? Usually, that's not an issue, but..."

But because it was a double interview, there was one. "Max's is probably more boring, so maybe his after we're done?" He actually didn't know which song his best friend had picked, having missed it. He had spent his time looking around the studio and not really focusing on anything else except questions he was asked directly.

The needling was cause for Max to roll his eyes. "You're the DJ. Whatever you think is right, I'm agreeing with. I don't know anything about that, so..."

Their host smiled at them over a cup of coffee. "Then we'll do it like that." He drained the cup, placing it on a saucer. "I'm not treating you too young or old, by the way? It's been a long time since I interviewed someone your age."

"Max is thirteen going on thirty anyway," Danny said, hoping for Max to respond appropriately. He did, with a stuck-out tongue. "It's fine for me."

Max echoed the sentiment, and Jean-Pierre nodded, putting his headset back on and flipping a switch or two a minute later. After restating who was there – again, as radio DJs tended to do – he went straight back to what they had been talking about earlier. "Before the break, you, Danny, said that Max was a goal to reach. Can you explain that for our listeners?"

He most definitely could, and the break had given him time to prepare an answer. "Max lived and breathed Pokémon for twenty months, even without having one of his own. He had a better grasp of strategy, tactics, and training than nearly every other twelve year old when he left, and I got to share in that. It wasn't until I developed my own style that I started being able to win somewhat consistently in sparring matches, but he was always the first to get a more difficult Gym challenge."

"That is a feather in a cap if I have ever heard one, and that ties in neatly with my next question. You've travelled together for twenty months," Jean-Pierre said, and Danny was struck with sudden realisation that it had indeed been that long. He hadn't ever thought about Max's travels with Ash, May, and Brock taking as long as their own journey. "And in that time, you've learned a lot about each other. Danny, you've already answered this, so this one is just for Max: what is something Danny is particularly good at? What does he bring to the table in your travelling partnership?"

There was no hesitation on Max's end. "Danny has a way of cutting through problems and finding solutions. It's helped me more than a few times, including for a Gym rematch back in Hoenn."

The subtle tap on the wristband told Danny that Max had also been thinking of other times that happened, and he smiled. Thankfully, the blush that usually came with compliments stayed away.

"And what about some negative things about each other? Even best friends don't always see eye to eye on everything."

It was another easy answer for Danny. He'd only complained to Serena about it at least half a dozen times over the past months. "Max is very stubborn and will only say he's wrong way after the rest of us figured that out."

"And when I do apologise, Danny gives me an infernally smug smirk before saying everything is fine," Max replied instantly, his voice neutral and his face only betraying the smallest of hints of amusement. Not that Danny was fooled – they'd told each other this more than once before.

"You certainly know each other well," Jean-Pierre complimented them. "And that brings me to my final questions, and the phanpy in the room. Danny, where in zygarde's name did you find an Aggronite, a Key Stone, and how did you shatter the previous age record on Mega Evolution?"

Phanpy in the room indeed. That had just won him a long-shot bet with Max, who had been certain it would pop up as one of the first questions, but even so, Danny was on his own for answering this. Annoyingly. Max was the one who'd thought more about this with Gary.

There was nothing to it, though. "The Aggronite was one of the Mega Stones Team Flare used in their plans, and Champion Diantha gave it to me after Wikstrom declined it and suggested me as a replacement. The Key Stone was a gift from Professor Sycamore for being able to do the Mega Evolution successfully." He paused to let it sink in for everyone, as well as to collect his thoughts. "I think… We've been through a lot here in Kalos, with Team Flare. Max and I fought them multiple times, and it was… You can't go through something like that and not come out different, and with stronger bonds than before."

He knew he'd rambled a bit, but Danny saw Jean-Pierre nod thoughtfully. "We are the sum of our experiences, and you have seen more than most will ever see in their life." The host nodded respectfully. "One last question before we go to commercial break. Given that you went through the same thing, do you think Max is also capable of using Mega Evolution if he had the means?"

And that was Max winning a side bet. Still, they had thought about this specific question last night. "I think Max is capable of that, yes," Danny said, hopefully managing to not give away that Max, in fact, was the first to do it between the two of them.

After that, Jean-Pierre quickly announced the next song: a fast-paced song with lots of guitars and clear vocals that never failed to put a spring in Danny's step, energising him for whatever was ahead. The entire album was good, but this particular track was just the best.

From there, everything went to the news, explaining why Jean-Pierre hadn't dwelt on Danny's last answer. The trio in the studio spent some time just chatting idly while it was going on, with the DJ engaging Danny in a bit of talk about the band they had just listened to. His own ten year old son was a big fan of the quartet as well, which instantly endeared the boy to Danny. Max's opinion was asked as well, but he just shrugged, saying his usual thing about it being okay enough, but not really his taste.

"Lastly," Jean-Pierre said after eventually resuming the show, "we have some questions from listeners. Some of them are for both of you, and others are for one in particular. Are you ready?" he asked, to two nods. "First question, from Maurice, age unknown, who wants to know if you've ever had Pokémon that disobeyed you for some reason."

"Only minor stuff for both of us," Max answered the question for them. "You know, like vulpix not wanting to sit still for a bath or things like that. I guess we're lucky with that."

"Or just skilled," their host retorted, causing both teenagers to look at each other and shrug. That worked, they thought. "Next, from Bonnie, aged twelve, who wants to know if you think cute Pokémon can be strong… too? Is something the matter?"

"Sorry," Max said in between chuckles, and Danny was glad his friend was able to control himself. He certainly didn't trust himself to speak. "I know Bonnie, and the answer is 'yes, if you practice hard enough and your Pokémon are cut out for it'."

"See clefairy and vulpix," Danny added quickly.

A final look from Jean-Pierre communicated perfectly that he felt there was more to this, but he didn't press. "For Max, from Leonard, aged nineteen, and I'll skip the expletives because this is live radio: how did you lose a Gym battle with your skill?" Jean-Pierre smiled. "Sounds like someone's impressed with what you've done so far."

"It was the Hoenn Rock-type Gym, and I ended up losing the first Pokémon. Roxanne – the Gym Leader," Max explained, needlessly in Danny's opinion, "was really good at just using her advantage over me after that. I had to send my grovyle out for my last Pokémon while she still had one in reserve. That was a magcargo."

"Not the best match-up anyone could ask for," Jean-Pierre quipped. "For Danny, from an anonymous watcher: why do you use so many moves that hinder visibility?"

"If your opponent can't see you, it's a lot easier to not be hit. I know it's not fun to watch, but… It's got me good results, so I'm not stopping it."

Neither Max nor Jean-Pierre could resist a chuckle. "Okay. Last question, from Jean-Pierre, aged 43.." their host said, trailing off meaningfully. "For both of you. You've travelled with each other, battled each other more times than you can probably count in this broadcast… If you battle each other on Sunday, who's more likely to win?"

"It's going to be close," Max said. "Aggron was tricky enough to deal with, and now it's Mega aggron. I'm going to need to do my best to beat that."

"You always come up with something I'm not expecting, Max. I'm sure it won't be different."

"Ah, classic attempts at making the other the favourite," Jean-Pierre said, misreading everything for the first time as far as Danny had noticed. "We'll see on Sunday, if you meet. Thank you for coming here, and we leave you with Max's chosen song."

That song was a ballad about lost friendship – something that Danny saw Jean-Pierre itch to ask about, but the man didn't. Instead, he walked them out, thanking them for a good interview and the like.

It was when they were about to walk away that he placed a hand on Max's shoulder for just a moment. "Tell me one thing. Will we see a… surprise, tomorrow?"

Danny could guess what Jean-Pierre was hinting at, and if he could…

Max brought his left hand to his right wrist, twin pops undoing the second layer of his wristband. It was all the answer Jean-Pierre needed.

 **~~§~~§~~**

This entire day was making no sense, Serena felt. She'd gone to the hospital early in the morning, using Max's xatu as easy cross-city transportation, and she'd strapped herself into the isokinetic apparatus that she'd gone in last May as well. She'd tested her knee for ten minutes, and then the doctors told her to stop, just like last time as well.

And then they retreated. That took half an hour, during which Serena listened in to the first part of the Lumiose Radio interview with her friends, occasionally smiling whenever one of them said something that was so… so _them._ After the half hour was over, the knee specialist walked back in, asking if she was okay with having her knee scanned again.

Another hour had passed since then, and while she'd walked down to the cafeteria for some bland hospital food, she was really wondering what was going on. Like, she knew her knee was a lot better, but wasn't that how recovery worked anyway? She rather liked having a knee that didn't buckle and ache in cold weather, thank you.

"Miss Galbena?" a younger man wearing the hospital clothing said as he entered the waiting room; clipboard in hand. "Doctor Mayo will see you now."

Serena followed him down the hallway to a familiar office, taking a seat before noticing that it wasn't just her doctor and the assistant that had summoned her there. A woman sat off to the side, looking at her strangely. "Well, Miss Galbena," the doctor started in his comforting baritone, "there has been an unexpected development. One I believe you will like greatly." He waved a hand, indicating the woman to his right. "I will let Ms. Dubois explain."

"Miss Galbena," the woman started in turn, fixing piercing blue eyes on Serena's. "You were present in Geosenge, and you visited the hospital afterwards according to your medical history. This is correct?"

Serena didn't know where this was going at all, confusion rising as she took a moment to think. "Yes? I mean," she added before Ms. Dubois could speak up. "I hit my head on some stone stairs, but the Heal Pulse and Geomancy xerneas used after it was over made it go away. Just like a lot of other things, right?"

The assistant snorted, and both doctors smiled gently. "Xerneas healed everyone in that attack radius, regardless of how serious it was. Bones were unbroken," Ms. Dubois said, nodding knowingly towards Serena, who connected it to Danny. "Burns were healed. Wounds closed, and even internal illnesses were eradicated. Several terminal cancer patients are alive because of it."

Serena knew this already; something Max had read – and been ecstatic about – at some point. "And what's that have to do with me?"

"It also restored your knee. Completely, no apparent weaknesses."

It… No… It had to be a mistake. Everyone had said that she'd have a vulnerable knee for the rest of her life. That was the reality of ligament injuries. "But… It wasn't torn or anything? I would have felt it." She just remembered flying, and she was pretty sure her feet had left the ground as normally as they could have.

"It seems the healing powers of xerneas went deeper than expected. Your situation is actually the second of its kind – a nurse who was slated to have surgery on her shoulder also had the same," Doctor Mayo stated softly. "Like you, her injury was mostly healed, but with potential influence on her daily life. Now, however, all that is visible are scars from the incisions, the same as on your knee. The bone underneath, and your ligament tissue inside, is as pristine as we have ever seen."

"There are many things we still do not understand," Ms. Dubois said, fixing her with that piercing gaze once again. "I've spent quite a bit of time gathering data on this exact phenomenon of xerneas healing people. None of them have said anything about their former injuries hurting any longer, and the scans confirm it. There is no need for you to ever return to the hospital for that knee ever again. Provided you don't tear the ligaments a second time," she added; a smile taking the sting out of her words.

Twenty minutes later, after explaining it to her mother via phone and Teleporting back to the Pokémon Center, Serena still couldn't believe it. Her knee was whole. She could take up dancing again; she could stop worrying about travelling too far on one day…

She couldn't wait to tell Danny and Max. After going to Professor Sycamore's first. She had someone to meet there.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The call to Kanto went through without a hitch, and Gramps appeared on-screen; a hint of annoyance fading as the elder Oak noticed his grandson. "Ah, Gary, good to see you. I'm assuming you're done sifting through the data you collected?"

"Most of it," Gary stated truthfully. He had one section of the interview left to type up. "There was more than you'd expect," he defended himself when Gramps frowned. "They are observant for a bunch of snot-nosed teenagers who don't know what their..."

"Yes, that's enough," Gramps interrupted testily. Score one for him. "Of course, the situations they found themselves in were conducive towards developing those skills, and as far as I am aware, they are familiar with the sciences. It's a combination you don't see often, but a welcome one." A grin. "You realise you've probably met your future colleague, right?"

As if Gary hadn't realised it. Professorships were largely a family business. "He has a ways to go."

"Of course he does. He's thirteen. I don't need to remind you of your antics at that age, I don't think."

Score one to the other side. "Their working hypothesis is that their experiences enabled them to achieve the Mega Evolution."

"You don't agree."

It wasn't a question. "No. Not in full, though I cannot prove the exact aspect of it."

"Talk me through it," Professor Oak commanded, a few taps on the keyboard telling Gary that the recording system had been activated for later transcription.

"Sycamore posited the existence of the failed trigger phenomenon; wherein the bond is present, but the exact synchronisation of thoughts and feelings is not yet present. However, psychology teaches us that there is a certain egocentrism to adolescents like they – and Ash and I – are. Consider that Ash and I were the only teenagers actually capable of using Mega Evolution prior to this; you yourself tested that with Tate and Liza recently. All others are in their twenties or older. Barely, for the Shalour Gym Leader at first, but still."

"If your hypothesis is that adolescent brain development is a factor in this, I'd like to hear your explanation for the exceptions."

Gary shrugged. "I've been assuming that the experiences Ash, Danny, and Max went through – the saving the world ones," he added to differentiate, "were somehow a factor. If this is the case, Max's sister and Misty should also be capable of achieving Mega Evolution despite their ages. It does not explain me, but it is the best I could come up with in the past day."

A thoughtful hum was the reply; Gary recognising his grandfather's thinking face, formulating and discarding ideas in the blink of an eye. "Perhaps there is something to your hypothesis. If we assume the egocentrism principle to be valid, then it could be an option for any sufficiently large crisis to forcibly impose the idea that there is more to the world than just them and their close friends." The elder Oak folded his fingers into each other, fixing Gary with a shrewd look. "You are the strange exception, though I have my suspicions… Ones that aren't exactly capable of being aired over an unsecured phone without debriefing. Even then, there are barriers."

Translation: porygon-Z levels of classified information. "We can perhaps test the others. Do either of them have Mega-capable Pokémon?"

"The Cerulean blastoise or slowbro might count for Misty," Gramps replied evenly, "though I suspect they will not. Regardless, one of the Pokémon that is quickly making a name for itself in her battles is her gyarados. The only known gyaradosite, however, is in private hands, in Alola if I recall correctly."

"Cousin Samson might help to put us in touch?"

"Perhaps. I would prefer attempting blastoise first before we start asking for favours. Simplest solution and so on."

Gary could understand that, and from the lack of mentioning, he gathered that May hadn't evolved her ivysaur yet. "Do you want the transcript now, or when I return?"

"On return is fine," Gramps replied. "Observing the Mega Evolutions in extended battles could give you more insights as well." A few presses ended the recording. "Is there anything else that is pertinent to share right now? It is nearing dinner."

There was nothing else, and soon, Gary retreated to his room; setting up his laptop, a notepad, and locking the door so nobody could waltz in by accident.

 **~~§~~§~~**

"Ta-da!" Serena said as she revealed the Egg canister that she'd picked up at Professor Sycamore's laboratory earlier. Danny immediately noticed the Luxury Ball atop the glass, as well as a not very helpful colour on the Egg itself. Light-blue didn't reveal too much and all that. The yellow did throw him off a tiny bit. "So. guess the Pokémon."

She gave no further clues, leaving both of them to just guess. "Is it an amaura?" Danny asked. The Fossil Pokémon would fit with the kind of Pokémon Serena wanted, and they were easy and gentle Pokémon to boot.

"Wouldn't they have a rainbow mark instead of yellow?" Max wondered, going back to his reading as he shot down Danny's suggestion with logic. "I think it's a tympole."

"I've never even heard of tympole," Serena shared brightly, already going for her Pokédex. "T-y-m… _Eew_ , no."

That answered that, then, to Danny's amusement. "So, what will it be? I don't think you really wanted a particular type?"

Serena shook her head, her slightly longer than normal hair swaying in front of her eyes before she swept it away. "I didn't, but after a bit of thinking, I went with a Water-type. It's just safer whenever I'm alone, making a fire." She lifted the glass, taking the Egg out. "It's a ducklett. Or will be a ducklett."

"Useful," Max remarked as he put his _Pokémon Illustrated_ away. "And another Pokémon that can fly will help a lot in Contests, too. It's always easier to do impressive stuff in three dimensions." He stood up, undoing his wristband. "Still think you got the worse end of the deal, though. We got these, and you just got an Egg."

"I don't need more, and you know it," Serena replied evenly, shrugging. "I'm just hoping for a quiet time. Had enough excitement to last me a lifetime."

Danny could agree with that, but somehow, he had a feeling his path would include more of the excitement, as Serena had understated. "If you want one of my Pokémon to help teach it Ice Beam or something for a cold pack to put on your knee, just… What's so funny?"

"Oh, I had some news," Serena said, eyes almost twinkling with happiness. "In the hospital. Turns out there was more to xerneas's Heal Pulse than everyone thought."

"No way!" Max exclaimed, awestruck, just as Danny realised the same thing. "The Heal Pulse healed _that?_ That injury was a year and a half old!" He made a sudden movement with his head. "Wait… The scars on your knee are still there, right? And the one on Danny's temple. How come those weren't healed, but your ACL was?"

"Maybe because they aren't actual injuries or illnesses?" Danny guessed, shrugging. The motion was returned by the others. "But just… That's got to be a weight off your mind, not having to think about that."

"Oh, believe me, it is."

 **~~§~~§~~**

The semi-finals. Danny would be lying if he wasn't a tiny bit nervous ahead of them, but when you came this far, everyone was nervous to a certain extent. Even Danny's opponent – a teenager from Sinnoh by the name of Paul – probably was, though the stoic face and curt answers in the press conference an hour or two back hadn't revealed too much either way.

Danny, Keith, and Max had stuck their heads together the night before, trying to figure out which Pokémon were best to use. The ones Paul had shown had all been fully evolved, and he'd shown only one Pokémon that was Kalos-native and not on his previously shown team in the Sinnoh League that Ash had won.

From that data, and the battle Keith had had, they'd concluded that Paul was a Trainer who liked power over everything else, with no particular preference for a particular type, except maybe Dark-types, of which he''d shown three. It had been enough for Danny to leave dusclops out of his own team. This was not a battle for that particular Ghost.

"Gulpin, let's show him what we're made of!"

Paul's Pokémon was yellow and black, and not entirely unexpected. The electivire was a Pokémon the Sinnohan liked to use. It was also a lot better up close, which at least gave gulpin a fighting chance, but there were better match-ups for Danny to have rolled into for the first battle.

On the other hand, it wasn't the magmortar. That would have been an instant switch.

Gulpin opened by belching up some gunk, spitting it at the yellow Pokémon, but electivire avoided the Sludge, instead heading for gulpin himself. Electricity appeared on its left fist, but gulpin was able to roll out of the way. "Yawn!"

The pink splashed in electivire's face, but gulpin paid for his moment of not moving by being Thunderpunched away. He was able to roll with the landing, stopping just shy of the small brook in the middle of the arena, and a Protect shielded him from the worst of the Thunderbolt, though some of it did manage to get through.

A duo of other Thunderbolts followed, gulpin quickly rolling out of the way, zig-zagging just right to avoid the weaker jolts. Then the Yawn took full effect; the electivire struggling to shake off the soporific effects. "You know what to do!"

A Rollout – sadly without too much time to build up speed, what with the Electric-type stirring constantly – hit the electivire in its midriff, knocking it onto its behind as gulpin then started to expel poisonous fumes that soon enveloped both of them.

And then the cloud exploded, sending two Pokémon flying back. Gulpin, being lighter, flew far further, crashing into the shielding near Danny, but electivire wasn't unaffected, and its bulk meant the landing was hard and hopefully painful.

The cough as it rose was some good news at least, but gulpin was far worse off. Danny saw it reeling, and for a moment, he thought about returning his Poison-type.

Then he saw a Giga Impact form, pink and yellow barrelling down the arena straight at his Pokémon. "Sludge, upwards!"

Sending it straight ahead would only cause the goop to evaporate under the Giga Impact energies, whereas now, at least electivire got a gross shower. It did cause gulpin to be knocked out, but after the explosion… That was unavoidable.

Welcome to the big leagues, Danny guessed.

He hoped to entice Paul into keeping electivire in while still using something that'd resist the electricity – it knew Brick Break at the very least- but Paul didn't take the bait, instead switching his pangoro into Danny's diggersby.

The large panda-like Pokémon – the only Kalos-native Pokémon Paul had shown before this tournament – immediately rushed towards Danny's Pokémon similarly to what the electivire had done earlier, but this time, Danny was prepared. "Bulldoze, then Mud Shot!"

Diggersby slammed its ears into the ground, one after the other, both creating a shock wave that travelled across the ground, upending the soil. It stopped at the brook, but pangoro had cleared it already when the first ear went down.

Paul's Pokémon braced itself instead of continuing on, but that only made it an easy target for the follow-up Mud Shot that diggersby had torn out of the ground. A quick block with its arms made sure the mud didn't reach the eyes, but the pangoro had to take a step backwards as the second hit, and the quick shake of the arm afterwards told Danny it had been a success. "Create a mud screen!"

More mud was gouged out of the ground, this time being thrown up defensively. It still reached the lumbering pangoro, who had to close its eyes, and that time was what diggersby needed, hopping away with its powerful hind legs and putting a good amount of distance between him and his opponent.

Sadly, Paul was on the ball as well, and even before landing, pangoro had already turned left, resuming its attacks. "Careful now."

The Hammer Arm that went into the ground underlined the need for that all too well, though diggersby was too quick for it, jumping to the side and dodging another swipe of a glowing hand in the process. The pangoro tried for a Low Sweep with a leg, but Danny's Pokémon saw a vulnerability in the panda's posture.

Two feet landed in the larger Pokémon's side, diggersby immediately pushing off, unbalancing the pangoro before it could retaliate. It readjusted; planting legs firmly on the ground, but the Digging Pokémon was already flinging a large quantity of mud he had stored on his fur. The swing unbalanced him, causing a mid-air flip, but as he landed on his ears, Diggersby sent out an omnidirectional Bulldoze that shook half of the arena, pangoro included.

It roared loudly before closing the distance with diggersby once more.

True to his training, diggersby held his ground, flinging mud and aiming for the face especially, forcing a paw to shield at all times. The other arm glowed with another Hammer Arm, coming down, and… "Now!"

Brilliant green blocked the arm, the kinetic energy rebounding into pangoro itself, and diggersby dropped the shield as soon as the panda reared back, swiping glowing ears at head-height – roughly waist-high for pangoro.

Paul's Pokémon grabbed the ears with both hands, and with a mighty heave, diggersby went flying away from Danny, towards the brook in the middle. His skid stopped just shy of the water, and Danny's Pokémon immediately brought ears in front of his body to block a Dark Pulse from connecting.

The block held, but pangoro used the time to close half the distance, charging forward shoulder-first, intending to body check diggersby. "Bulldoze!"

With all might, diggersby slammed his ears into the ground. The soil reared up at least two feet, and just in time, too: the sudden displacement making pangoro go _over_ diggersby. A foot tried to drag the Ground-type along, but it only caused the rabbit to fall onto his backside while pangoro took a dive, splashing everything around it with water.

The panda exited the water faster than Danny thought possible, but even so, it had to take a large Mud Shot straight to the small of its back, nearly forcing the pangoro to lurch forwards. "Back off now."

Diggersby created distance between himself and the brook, and pangoro cleared the water in a mighty jump; the ground trembling lightly as it landed with all its weight. No Earthquake, just pure weight and force, and the wet Pokémon roared another challenge.

And then it used a Focus Blast from its mouth. The instant Protect held – barely – but it also meant that pangoro had time to close the distance once more. This time, there was no glow on the arms, but the first swipe made the goal clear: it wanted to grab diggersby by the ears, and only a quick duck had let Danny's Pokémon avoid it.

A curtain of mud flew upwards, some of it getting in pangoro's face, but one paw grabbed an ear. Diggersby was hauled up, the Daunting Pokémon holding him at arm's length to keep the free ear from slamming into the main body while its own other arm wound up for a Hammer Arm.

The grasping arm was within range, and diggersby swung his entire body violently, the free ear punching the rigid arm below the elbow. A roar of pain followed, and the arm buckled as pangoro lost balance for some reason. The Hammer Arm still sent diggersby flying, but the hit was at an angle, sending Danny's Pokémon up as Paul's Pokémon grasped its right arm with the left; howling in anger and agony.

The landing wasn't great for diggersby, but there was no time to recover as a furious Focus Blast raced towards him. He rolled sideways, avoiding the brunt of the explosion, but receiving a shower of sharp debris to his side. He still got up, and Danny caught the look on his face.

With an almost feral grin, the grey Pokémon scooped up some mud and started a barrage of single-projectile Mud Shots. A large one; then two smaller ones, another large one, three at once… They forced pangoro to move away, unable to close the distance as it had done before, and Danny wondered for a moment why Paul's Pokémon didn't just block the attacks with both its arms. That had happened earlier in the fight, hadn't it?

Then a glob hit the panda's right arm, and the howl of pain was _not_ what he had expected. A look revealed the limb to be hanging by its side, uselessly, and Danny was reminded of another time; another Fighting-type; another injury. And he remembered exactly how that had been exploited. "Keep focusing the arm!"

A Bulldoze threw pangoro off-balance, allowing diggersby the time he needed to move in closer, further covering his approach by cleaning his ears of any remaining mud. The dirt forced an arm in front of beady eyes, and that allowed Danny's Pokémon to wind up a Doubleslap with glowing ears, aiming low.

Another Hammer Arm created a crater in the ground, but the grey Pokémon was too nimble, skirting around locked legs and finding an easy target in the wounded lower arm. A slap found its mark, just before the pangoro turned to slam a fist into diggersby.

Inertia still carried the punch, but pangoro itself sank to the ground, howling in agony from the Doubleslap. It was an almost pitiful sound, and Danny mumbled an order to not attack into his microphone. Diggersby obeyed, instead using the time to restock on mud and soil.

Then the referee ruled pangoro out, on account of a suspected broken arm causing too much pain for it to continue.

Danny took a deep breath to thaw his insides, which had frozen when the injury had been mentioned. He certainly hadn't intended to aggravate that injury, and though it was a real possibility in any battle, this was the first time that one of his Pokémon had caused an injury that severe to anyone. As far as he knew and cared anyway – he hadn't really kept track of what swampert and lairon, later aggron, had done in Durocor.

He shook his head, setting his unease aside. It was an accident, and they happened.

A honchkrow came out next; the black, white, and red Pokémon flapping its wings calmly over on Paul's side of the arena, staying roughly in one place.

It opened up with a Dark Pulse, but the powerful attack was halted as a Mud Shot intercepted the spiralling beam, to Danny's surprise. He hadn't expected diggersby to have that much left in him. "You know what to do," he called as honchkrow flew upwards.

A half roll allowed the Dark-type to avoid a second Mud Shot, and it went into a hard and fast dive, tendrils of white energy indicating the Aerial Ace.

Danny's Pokémon carefully tracked the dive, but he was slightly too slow in reacting to the fake-out that honchkrow used. The crow disappeared, reappearing off to the side, and sped towards its opponent in a horizontal trajectory.

Funny. Danny thought honchkrow were generally heavier than diggersby, but the limited skid suggested the reverse. Must've remembered it wrong.

The same trick didn't work twice as a well-timed Protect caused honchkrow to bounce away, barely avoiding a Mud Shot sent after it. The impact had rattled the flying Pokémon slightly, and it preferred a Shadow Ball to block the next Mud Shot.

Sadly, there was no third, diggersby needing to refuel ammunition, and honchkrow used that time to expel black fumes; a Smokescreen or a Haze. The gases hid it from sight, but diggersby was far enough away to not be too affected visually. "Keep an ear out, but attack!"

Danny knew full-well Sky Attack was in honchkrow's arsenal, and with Mud Shot being able to block Dark Pulse, it was the logical move to use while hiding from plain sight.

He wasn't wrong, but the speed at which the attack had charged took both Danny and diggersby by surprise. The ease at which it sliced through a Mud Shot, just as it exited the cloud with a white aura flaring, was also not good news. The Protect was also not nearly enough to stop the Sky Attack, though it at least seemed to blunt the impact, allowing for diggersby to remain conscious, despite being thrown back a quarter of the arena.

Dark Pulse missed as Danny's Pokémon rolled out of the way, a flick of his left ear stopping any sharp debris from hitting. He got up, breathing heavily, ears drooping slightly.

And in the distance, honchkrow was preparing an Aerial Ace. "Try to get one last hit in."

Danny was expecting a barrage of Mud Shots to leave diggersby's ears, but he didn't, instead tensing, waiting for the swift strike to come in. Honchkrow played its part as well.

Then, suddenly, diggersby plunged ears into the ground, creating a Rock Tomb around himself. Honchkrow, who, as before, was speeding in horizontally, crashed straight into it, shattering the rock and hitting diggersby a lot less controlled than had been planned.

The Rock Tomb was inexpert and improvised, that much Danny could tell, but it had done a lot more damage than expected. "Well done." he softly commended his fainted Pokémon, replacing diggersby's pokéball on his belt before thinking what he wanted to use next. Paul would just switch if the match-up wasn't great, just as he'd done with electivire, so perhaps something neutral would be better. Loudred could work, he supposed.

Or he could take a risk. There was no waiting period in the semi-finals. It was commonly observed, but… He needed every advantage he could get, and it was perfectly legal to execute such a strategy…

He unclipped one pokéball, rolling his shoulder once as he brought the pokéball to his lips. "Straight ahead," he whispered as softly as he could, mouth nearly touching cold metal. Then, he dropped his hand, winding up for a throw as far as he could. "Ice Beam!"

And honchkrow was blasted out of the sky, the immediate drop causing Paul's return beam to miss. A second Ice Beam hit before a second return attempt was made, and the referee ruled honchkrow out as it was returned.

The announcer was a tad shocked, from what Danny heard, explaining that the move was perfectly legal, if not seen all that often. He also relayed that Paul didn't exactly look happy about it.

The magmortar came out, but Danny was actually okay with that. It was risky, sure, but it was one of the things he wanted to get out of the way before he sent out aggron.

Heavy hail started falling, and froslass vanished from view before a Flamethrower scorched the air she had previously occupied. The magmortar was generally fairly immobile, Danny remembered, so he'd have to think about how he would defend himself, and then use that to identify weaknesses. "Keep some distance. It knows Smog."

The attacks needed to be powerful, and a Powder Snow just evaporating in the wake of a wave of Embers underlined that point. Froslass realised it as well, starting to craft a Blizzard somewhere up high.

Magmortar had no intention of allowing it to go through, spitting out a Fire Spin tornado. The flame forced froslass to flee her position, the budding Blizzard moving along with her; a patch of brighter white in the intense hail. It was an easy target for magmortar to target, and a Flamethrower forced froslass to throw her own attack into it.

It was roughly a stalemate, a small explosion whipping through the air as froslass's eyes glowed bright blue, intensifying the hail to make magmortar vanish from Danny's view. "Weave and Shadow Ball."

Purple shot into the hail, a few flickers indicating explosions, though Danny wasn't sure if they were blocks or hits or anything else. He knew it wasn't enough to stop magmortar, and the Ember spray that was sent back – moderately accurate, but easily dodged – was proof of that.

The fire was switched with rocks. Danny had ideas how that had happened: he knew that the magmortar knew Rock Tomb, and picking up Brick Break or some other move that allowed it to break the rocks wasn't exactly strange. The barrage of debris was too closely together for froslass to dodge every last one, sadly, and she took a part of it in exchange for summoning an Ice Beam.

The Ice-type attack was a full hit, if the huge geyser of steam in the middle of the arena was any indication. Magmortar didn't become visible; froslass keeping the hail going all the while, despite the heat the volcanic Fire-type must be radiating. "Confuse Ray."

Froslass quickly manipulated the hail, creating a cluster of intense winds overhead, feigning a Blizzard while she dipped lower to the ground, seeking to deliver the mind-altering energy from down-low.

And then she was engulfed in flame and earth.

Danny bit back a cry as he saw froslass being thrown up, limbs flailing like a rag doll. She recovered just in time to create a desperate Protect to throw up against a Flamethrower, but she was helpless to stop the follow-up Fire Spin from sucking in all the hail on the field, revealing a bruised and rather annoyed magmortar standing behind glowing soil. The Lava Plume looked like it had been summoned in an area in front of the Fire-type.

Froslass phased through the Fire Spin with a little concentration, and she launched a Shadow Ball at the outstretched arm cannon, intercepting flame as it started to form and causing the magmortar to shake the arm in pain. "Keep using Shadow Balls."

Danny's Ice-type obeyed, launching two smaller Shadow Balls to keep the magmortar off-balance before soaring upwards, tendrils of icy air starting to form around her once again. She didn't use the energy yet, half-rolling way from a Flamethrower and returning fire. Once again, she hit the arm cannon just as it was about to launch fire.

That set the magmortar off.

Another Lava Plume cloaked the Fire-type from sight, and though froslass immediately started weaving, the fiery tornado that passed through the soil and ash was accurate enough to capture froslass in the outer bands of fire. It sucked her in, delivering the froslass straight to the edge of the arena, where the fire died out.

The tornado had left a searing scar on the ground, and at its end laid froslass, unconscious, but miraculously not too burnt from what Danny could see. He'd hand her off to a paramedic in the break.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

Name: Paul*  
Age: 18  
Region: Sinnoh  
Trainer Class: Ace  
Style: Strength  
Odds: 17-2

Notes: In a Kalos League bereft of high-profile trainers, this Sinnoh trainer is one of the better known names. A stretch of four won tournaments in as many weeks catapulted him into the spotlight after already getting top eight in the Lily of the Valley Conference. His dour demeanour and harsh standards for his Pokémon haven't endeared him to everyone, but his strength and tactical acumen have garnered him some fans.

*Last name not known.

Pokémon to watch: Honchkrow, Torterra, Electivire

From: _Pokébet's_ profile of Paul, retrieved prior to the start of the Kalos League.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** A lot of good news for Serena this chapter. Ducklett was chosen because I felt she needed a Water-type for striking out on her own, and because swanna's grace would appeal to her. Her injury being healed was pretty much planned from the earliest plotting as well, though deciding when it was found out was harder to figure out. Earlier drafts had her figuring it out by herself around the Master Class, but that was shelved in favour of having it come up during a scheduled check-up.

There are three more chapters in this story, according to my plans, though there will also be one more skipped week after the penultimate chapter.


	40. Evolving Stratagems

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 40: Evolving Stratagems**

Whenever he was watching, Max disliked the breaks they put in. He knew, from experience, that they were needed, both for the Trainers and because Pokémon battles at the higher levels were also heavily televised, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He just wanted to see everything if possible, and breaks were just making you wait for the continuation of something good.

He had always fast forwarded any recordings for a reason.

"How's he doing?" Keith wondered; the currently fake-blond teen turning around in his seat one row down. He'd caught the dyeing bug from Danny. "I mean, he's down, but… How bad is it?"

Max wasn't sure himself, but both Jane and Serena were looking at him as well, expecting him to answer. As if he was some kind of analyst or something… "It was always going to be hard," he hedged at first, thinking of what he had seen. "Gulpin getting knocked out so fast was bad, but… Danny is fighting back hard. I'm not sure he can make it, but he's giving Paul a good fight. One he should respect."

Honestly, that had been both of their biggest fears: to be knocked out without a fighting chance. Max had feared for Danny after gulpin, but then diggersby used the annoyance of Ground-type moves extremely well, getting far more than anyone was probably expecting. And then the froslass manoeuvre…

Max hadn't thought Danny had had it in him. He was more about the straight up thing, no dirty tricks and all. In official fights, Max amended – there hadn't been any complaining when they'd cheap shot a couple of grunts two months back.

"You know what Danny has left?" Jane asked, and Max gave her a nod to confirm that. "Which Pokémon next?"

"Paul switches a lot," Max said, studying the purple-haired teenager on one of the big screens. The ever-present scowl barely budged as an energy bar was chewed to bits. "Send out swampert, and Paul sends out something else. I don't think Danny wants that. He wants the magmortar off the field before aggron. It'll be loudred."

Honestly, he wasn't sure that was going to be good enough, but if nothing else, it'd weaken the magmortar enough for aggron to knock it out in one big attack anyway.

"Which Pokémon do you think Paul has left?" Serena wondered as she shook her wallet. It didn't sound full. "Can I borrow some money for a drink?"

Keith was the first to hand her some coins, stopping Max's own search. "Torterra for sure. He'd be a fool not to have it around," Max opined, trying to recall Paul's team. "Don't think he has the froslass with him. It's too good a match-up into diggersby for him not to do it. Same for weavile." He shrugged. "It'll be something powerful for sure. That's who he is."

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny sent loudred out, knowing that he really needed the Fire-type gone before even thinking about aggron. "Stay away," he told the Normal-type as they waited for the match to resume; Paul sending out magmortar in the same spot as it had occupied earlier.

Both of them opened with pretty strong moves. Flamethrower met Hyper Voice. The fire overpowered the sound-based energy, but the delay loudred's attack provided allowed her to move out of the way as the fire rushed towards Danny. He blinked out of reflex, mostly to not be blinded by the shields being strengthened too much in front of his face.

Opening his eyes revealed that loudred was going for an Echoed Voice combination. Magmortar shook it off with ease, instead spitting out a Fire Blast that had to be blocked with Protect – and even then, Danny's Pokémon probably found it hotter than she wanted; the shield coming perilously close to shattering. As soon as the worst was over, though, she planted her feet on the ground in a very specific way. "Go!"

Danny was uncertain how it worked, but somehow, loudred had managed to infuse the headache-inducing, brain-dizzying sounds of Supersonic with the resonance of Echoed Voice, boosting its effectiveness and making it harder to shrug off, at the cost of having to concentrate, leaving her a sitting duck.

She had to take a Flamethrower for it, but the attack actually obscured the Supersonic passing through, and magmortar's torching stopped suddenly as it brought both arms to its head; the fire spewing forth stopping as it did so. For a brief moment, the Fire-type's head was engulfed in self-created flame, but that probably did nothing anyway. They did live in volcanoes and all that.

Loudred was singed, definitely, but she looked eager enough to fight. "Keep building!"

This time, no fire stopped loudred as she unleashed short bursts of Echoed Voice; single notes hanging in the air before touching the Fire-type lost in its own head. Every burst caused an unconscious step back, small, but noticeable nevertheless.

The moment that loudred noticed magmortar removing its hands from its head, she switched it up again, using a quick Screech to try and stop any fire from coming her way, but that was not the attack that followed. Instead, she had to jump to the left as a Lava Plume lashed out in a cone in front of magmortar. It was off-target, revealing that the confusion hadn't lifted yet, but the shape made it come close anyway; her former position now being rained down upon by hot soil and embers.

A larger Echoed Voice note began to form as loudred concentrated in her new position, hoping to make the most out of what was left of the Supersonic's effects, but even as Danny saw the bubble-like attack start to form, he also saw the magmortar aim straight at loudred; red already appearing.

But he dared not say anything, for risk of loudred's concentration breaking. The Flamethrower spewed forth, hitting the bubble as it hovered over, and…

Danny was _just_ too late on closing his eyes; blue superimposed on the inside of his eyelids as he squeezed his eyes shut. The shields had flared when the attack met, and judging by the sudden loud noise all across the stadium, he hadn't been the only one caught unaware.

"Magmortar and loudred are both unable to battle."

The position of both Pokémon – as best Danny could tell while squinting to not let too much light into his eyes – told the story a bit. It looked like the attacks had met, and exploded in a huge shock wave that also displaced most of the topsoil, which had been thrown into a three foot high wall at the edges of the arena. Both Pokémon had also gone flying, and it had been enough to knock them out.

Danny thought about going for aggron now, but decided against it. The Mega Evolution would be his last stand. It was fitting and all that.

At least the explosion had cleared out all of the heated soil from the Lava Plumes, meaning swampert and aggron could move anywhere they wanted to move.

The yanmega was _not_ a welcome sight. Paul had used it before, though its strength hadn't been too obvious then. It was a finisher like aggron had been for Danny in the round of 16. The main problem Danny had with it was that it was incredibly speedy, as usual for its kind, and swampert never was the best at dealing with ninjask.

Oh, and it flew, which meant no Earthquake. At least, not without first forcing it to the ground.

Yanmega made the first move; flying high into the sky and unleashing an Air Slash from a great distance. The sickle flew down, but in the time that it travelled downwards, swampert was able to just move to the side, only getting pelted with a bit of rock from where the Flying-type move tried to gouge a furrow into the ground. A second Air Slash, this one from a bit less high up, met a similar fate.

The Bug-type dove, its wings already glowing with a third Air Slash, and this time, swampert didn't move, instead raising a fist over his head and blocking the slash without any visible effort or pain. He lowered the arm, unleashing a Water Gun that nearly caught the yanmega. The speedy dragonfly had to do a weird banking move to avoid it, allowing swampert to breathe an Icy Wind into the air.

The cold field hit as Paul's Pokémon decided to charge up a Bug Buzz. Red sound-based energy washed over swampert, too high for human hearing.

But swampert managed to ignore it, instead spitting out several projectiles of mud. One hit the yanmega's tail as it zipped away, and Danny smiled.

After having trained with loudred for so long, swampert was pretty good at ignoring sound-based moves.

Yanmega went down, using Double Team and Ancientpower in conjunction; the move forcing a Protect followed by a Water Gun that made most of the doubles vanish. The remaining three went up into the air again, readying Air Slashes.

This wasn't going to work in the long term. He needed some way of actually hitting the yanmega with more than just glancing blows. Yanmega wasn't hitting too hard – as swampert showed by blocking another Air Slash with his bare fist and retaliating with an Icy Wind behind it – but it would win the war of attrition.

Or maybe he just needed a glancing hit with something that actually did damage. "Create some rocks!"

Swampert didn't know Rock Tomb, but a good Earthquake was as good at shaking things loose, especially after all the topsoil had already been thrown off.

He had to eat a Silver Wind for it – the favourite move of May's beautifly also revealing the real one just by the way swampert adjusted his posture to better weather the attack – but it worked, and with another mighty stomp, he had a couple of large rocks to throw at his disposal.

Unfortunately, that was the sign for Paul's Pokémon to move further away once again, sticking with another Silver Wind after its other attacks had proven ineffective. This time, however, swampert launched an attack of his own into it; a Water Gun slicing through the heart of the wind but missing yanmega while he had to endure the remnants of the Bug-type move.

The story repeated itself twice more, only interrupted by another run of Double Team Ancientpowers. This time, swampert picked off half of the clones with a sweeping barrage of mud before throwing up a quick Protect. The block was successful, and the thrown stone after it barely missed what Danny thought was the real yanmega.

That also put an end to any Ancientpower runs, leaving just the Silver Wind barrages that were harder to deal with, but that also weren't too damaging. Danny guessed that it the war of attrition had just swung in his own favour. Swampert was expending barely any energy on moving, and he was mitigating or outright blocking nearly everything the yanmega was throwing around. This cautious approach would probably win him this round, eventually.

And then the Bug-type threw up an orb of fire, and all caution went out the window. "Get it!" Danny snapped, swampert obeying even before the second word had been said. He grabbed one of the rocks nearby and flung it upwards, at the stationary yanmega that was charging a Solarbeam on its wings.

The rock missed, Solarbeam launched, and swampert was forced to throw out a full-power Protect for the first time in the match. The Grass-type move wrapped around the shield, searing the ground nearby, but Danny also saw the shield itself crack underneath the pressure. A tiny gap turned into a torrent, and he thanked his lucky stars that it had been the tail end of the Solarbeam that had hit swampert. A full hit would've done more, but this wasn't too bad.

A burst of mud caught yanmega and Danny by surprise. He hadn't been expecting swampert to recover that quickly from being hit by its sole weakness. A few of the projectiles splashed on yanmega's body, interrupting the second round of Solarbeam that was charging overhead. The mud stuck to its body, for now, and it dove to get rid of it.

Just the opening swampert wanted. Even as flecks of brown flew off of yanmega, a smaller rock beaned it in the head, sending it tumbling into the ground, whereupon swampert immediately used Earthquake.

Unfortunately, without topsoil, there wasn't much of anything to cover small Pokémon up, but when yanmega took flight again, it looked decidedly shaky, and not really fit for much, while swampert was still pretty hale, all things considered. One more move should do it…

And then yanmega vanished in red light, a torterra came out, and the ground underneath swampert tore itself apart.

Frenzy Plant vines erupted upwards, uncaring of swampert's Protect because it didn't extend to below him. Danny's starter was lifted clean off the ground, and the Protect fell, which caused more vines to target him.

"Swampert is unable to battle.'

And swampert hadn't even had time to activate Torrent. That was how hard the torterra had hit. Impressive and scary at the same time.

And Danny wouldn't even be able to grumble about it to Max, because it was the exact same move as he had pulled himself with froslass and honchkrow. What was that saying again? Hoist by his own… Something.

"Well, aggron. Three on one," he said as he prepared to send out his sixth and last Pokémon. "Show them what you can do."

The Mega Evolution still required conscious focus on the shared trigger, but steel settled with ease. Gone were the Rock-type influences, and pure Steel was all that remained.

It was time to show the power of disruption and defence.

As one, both aggron and torterra opened with the same move; Earthquake. The ground in between shattered fully, creating crevasses and rock formations alike, but neither attack really reached the opponent. Torterra was a bit more affected, though it didn't go beyond having to adjust footing.

"Up close," Danny ordered softly.

The ground shook again as steel ran down the length of the arena, pushing through a Leaf Storm without issue. He lowered his head, plate glowing, and rammed it into the torterra.

The Grass-type roared, retaliating with a Giga Drain. Tendrils of green latched onto aggron from all sides, but they didn't bind. A Metal Claw severed half of them, torterra recoiling and bracing itself reflexively. The other half retreated before a second Metal Claw could hit. That attack then went towards torterra itself, only a curtain of Stone Edge straight up stopping aggron from tearing out one of the trees.

An Earthquake unbalanced Paul's Pokémon, allowing aggron to bend over. With a mighty heave, he lifted the other Pokémon off the ground. Legs moved as they searched for ground not there, but then it stilled, launching a Giga Drain before aggron could throw it away.

The tendrils broke as the torterra flew twenty feet, landing hard, but with all limbs on the ground. It was unable to mount an attack before aggron was already upon it. A Take Down hit the Continent Pokémon in the side, causing a belly skid backwards.

It also triggered an eruption of green. The Overgrow on torterra's back went into the ground, and aggron instantly threw up a Protect, adjusting it at Danny's bark of "Below!"

Several vines of Frenzy Plant lunged at aggron, but Protect held, vines shattering on the defence.

It hadn't been torterra's plan. With another pulse of green, the arena shook and rumbled. The cause soon became clear. An entire slab of rock; the slab that aggron had been standing on; was launched upwards. It was not high, but it unbalanced aggron enough. The landing was harsh, and harsher still as a Leaf Storm washed over the prone Steel-type.

But aggron was not so easily defeated. Summoning a Bulldoze with his fist, he unbalanced torterra for a long moment. It was enough for him to get to get his bearings, and for him to slam both fists into the ground for a Bulldoze.

The torterra left the ground, maybe two feet, but it was enough to disrupt the Grass-type.

Half a tonne of angry Steel-type thundered towards torterra. Giga Drain did nothing except enrage him more, and with a sharp Metal Claw and a regular punch, green faded.

A victorious roar echoed as Danny took stock of his Pokémon. There were scratches on the silver; signs of battle; but aggron looked good still, despite Frenzy Plant, Earthquake, Leaf Storm, and Giga Drain all hitting.

Such was the power of defence. To scoff at overwhelming power, and to win.

Electivire came out, looking queasy from poison, albeit only slightly so. It would force the attack, and aggron would be up to defending.

It led with Thunder, but aggron had blocked worse. The shield held, falling as the earth shook again. Earthquake unbalanced electivire, but the Electric-type started moving forward.

Flame on a fist revealed why. The Fire Punch connected low as aggron retaliated high. The electivire was forced to its knees from the fist into its spine. Instinctive electricity lanced out as aggron turned for a tail swipe.

A hard landing, but electivire got up quickly. Smaller jolts of electricity tested steely defences, but fists and rocks intercepted the attacks as aggron advanced slowly. Each step caused rocks to jump up several inches in miniature earthquakes.

Electivire went for another Thunder, and aggron went for another Protect. He kept moving unflinchingly as green shielding protected him, and the Electric-type abandoned the move soon after. It made to scoot away, but an Earthquake stopped that, flinging it to the ground.

The Earthquake was less powerful than before; a vague sensation creeping in on Danny's bond telling him why. Aggron _was_ being worn down, but he refused to show weakness.

It was time to finish this, too. The yanmega would be easy prey. "Slam it."

A Bulldoze forced electivire to jump up; aggron using the time given by closing the distance. Electivire was grabbed by one hand, lighting up in a Thunder as aggron turned around sharply. The attack was raw, unmitigated, but the throw onto the ground was hard as well. Paul's Pokémon bounced up, but aggron didn't use that as a sharp crack appeared inside.

The screens overhead showed why. Just underneath his helmet, a green seed sat. It had been siphoning energy since the first Giga Drain connected. Every exertion aggron made, amplified by the Leech Seed, until the defences were breached.

A Fire Punch connected with a Metal Claw, spelling the end. The hard bond snapped, Danny physically recoiling as aggron fell, reverting as he did so. He shook his head to get rid of the sharp remnants, vaguely hearing the referee rule against him, and looked up just in time to see the conscious electivire be returned.

He had fought hard, he had fought well, and he was happy with what had happened here. He pasted a slightly fake smile on his face – and surprising himself at how little effort he actually had to put into faking it – as he wordlessly returned aggron, and then he waved at everyone, head held high.

Nobody would be able to tell him that he hadn't tried his best and then some, even after losing gulpin that fast early on.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max calmly walked onto his platform as the entire stadium applauded for him. The announcer had been a big factor in that, reminding the audience of Max's title and deeds, and the result was a wave of sound that Max was reasonably certain had been diminished by some subtly and hastily thrown-up sound dampening barriers. The air just felt like that.

His opponent, a mid-twenties man from Prudan with the most unkempt hair Max had ever seen – and that included his sister's after a mishap with pikachu – had come in first, and the referee soon told Max and Oscar to send out their first Pokémon.

Max had done his homework the night before. Oscar preferred mobile Pokémon, using multiple Pokémon that could fly, either through wings or otherwise. It had been enough to make Max actually bench sceptile for the battle, since he wouldn't get anything done against the noivern or the weezing anyway. Serena hadn't liked that decision for leave his starter out, but Danny seemed to understand.

The first Pokémon was one of those who could annoy those mobile Pokémon a lot. Clefairy came out, and not really to Max's surprise, Oscar's monferno had been sent out on the other end. It was agile, and while it lacked the hard-hitting strength of a fully-evolved starter like his sister's blaziken, it had more than made up for it in an earlier round, displaying a very varied move pool, with Thunderpunch, Shadow Claw, and even Grass Knot helping it along to victory.

It was very much an up close fighter, though, apart from Flamethrower and Ember, and Max quickly told clefairy that before the match officially started.

The knowledge that the monferno would need to close the distance before actually being able to hurt her allowed clefairy to lead off with a Metronome. Risky, maybe, but if she wanted to, who was Max to stop her.

He recognised the attack, but sadly, monferno had gone into a Flame Wheel to close the distance, and the Psyshock didn't hit because the ball of flame swerved around the crystals looking to intercept it.

It didn't go for the immediate attack, though, instead creating a circle of fire around clefairy of maybe twenty feet in diameter. The plan was obvious: force clefairy to stand and fight instead of hopping away, and any attempt at doing that would be met with something painful.

But clefairy hadn't stood still, going for another Metronome when it became clear she hadn't needed to counter the Flame Wheel, and Max smiled as he saw familiar green energy surround her.

Monferno were heavier, but clefairy was smart, angling her Dragon Rush at the last second so that the Fire-type, which had been eager to bounce into her in its fiery spin, was sent flying up, while clefairy was thrown through the curtain of fire with little harm to herself. She couldn't use the time monferno spent flying, instead having to use a Disarming Voice to neutralise most of the Embers the Fire-type sent with a swipe of its flaming tail, but she had disrupted the plan nicely.

Magical Leaves forced the rushing Fire-type to quickly shield itself with a coat of flame, but some of them still got through, despite the blaze consuming the Grass-type moves.

There was just enough time for one more Metronome, and just as monferno's fist lit up in some Fighting-type move, clefairy opened her mouth, spewing forth… Acid? Something that got into monferno's eyes, completely throwing the monkey off-balance and making it crash into clefairy instead of punching her.

It was just what she needed. After a short roll – though longer than monferno's due to transferred momentum – clefairy immediately got up, jumping at Oscar's Pokémon with her hands glowing. She unleashed several Doubleslaps, using the monferno's longer stay on the ground as it was trying to make its eyes tear up to remove the acid as a good way of getting free hits in at first, and then just not giving it any chance whatsoever to concentrate long enough to launch a counteroffensive.

An uncontrolled gout of flame was the signal for clefairy to back off, her lower body barely catching the tip of the flame, and clefairy quickly hopped all the way to the other side of the arena, where she resumed her use of Metronome, which caused her to inhale, before exhaling… Pure air?

All it did was snuff out one patch of burning soil, nothing more.

The whiff allowed monferno to rush in again, this time in a Mach Punch, and clefairy was just too late in dodging the hit. The fist hit her on the foot, sending her tumbling through the air, and monferno quickly turned around, launching a Flamethrower into clefairy's path.

The Fairy-type was ready for it, summoning a field of Gravity that brought her to the ground quicker than monferno had expected. She landed a bit harshly, but the Flamethrower missed completely, splashing onto the shields high above Max instead.

Monferno tried for another Mach Punch, but clefairy was ready for it, creating a patch of localised Gravity in front of the Fire-type's feet, perhaps ten inches high. The discrepancy in resistance between feet and body made the Fire-type tumble over, allowing for a Disarming Voice to hit it; pink energy passing over the orange body and making it shiver. "Metronome now," Max ordered, seeing an opportunity with just enough time.

Five seconds later, clefairy suddenly jumped into the air, also dodging the Embers monferno had sent her way by complete accident, and surrounded herself with… Yellow-orange flames? They formed a sphere around her, and then she veered downwards, crashing straight into the Fire-type.

It didn't look to do too much, clefairy barely getting away in time from a retaliatory punch, but it was enough to activate Blaze on the monferno.

The Flamethrower was certainly impressive, but clefairy had already jumped away, making sure she was all the way over at Max's side of the arena before going for yet another Metronome while the Fire-type had to get closer to actually hit with any power.

A moment later, Max was temporarily annoyed at clefairy being so close. Metal Sound was omnidirectional, and the sudden assault on his ears was painful, though thankfully brief as the shields adjusted. Worse, monferno was less affected because it was so far away at the start, and it was able to power through, readying a Fire Punch.

"Gravity shift."

Another Gravity, but this time, clefairy didn't only increase the gravity: she also flipped it. To the right, and the running monferno hadn't expected it. One foot went over the other, and it went down in a tumble; easy prey for a Disarming Voice.

The second Disarming Voice was met by a Flamethrower; the Blaze-fueled attack overpowering the Fairy-type move, at the cost of a lot of its own power. Clefairy didn't like it, but she endured the hit nevertheless.

The monferno cried out, creating another Fire Punch as it tried to finally use its physical strength to gain an advantage over clefairy, but Max's Pokémon was ready. With a shriek of her own, she created a larger low dome of gravity, stretching out in front of her and forcing the monferno to the ground, where she kept it stuck under gravity several times the regular strength.

Oscar returned the monferno as the Blaze was snuffed out; maybe thirty seconds later, as it became clear that clefairy was capable of holding the monferno in its prison, and that his Pokémon was unable to break out of it with any attack – not even Flamethrower could work because the Playful Pokémon's head faced away from the Fairy-type.

Any elation Max felt at winning round one vanished when he saw the second Pokémon; one Oscar hadn't used before this match. It was a Pokémon Max knew rather well, to say the least, and he was not happy to be facing one.

Slaking had that effect.

Gravity was useless now. Max knew it worked on Pokémon up to about twice his own weight, but slaking were closer to, if not over, three times his weight regularly, most of it muscle. Disarming Voice would tickle at best, Doubleslap would work until the slaking slammed one arm into clefairy…

But she had the distance, which gave Max at least one Metronome attempt.

He gave the order, and clefairy obeyed.

The first sign wasn't something visible or audible. It was deeper; something striking at a place behind his stomach. Max had no time to dwell on that before unknown, unmarked lines on clefairy's body started glowing vivid orange-yellow.

Pillars shot up one by one in the middle of the arena, lava oozing all over them. They crept closer to slaking with every sharp glowing rock erupting from the ground.

But slaking wasn't going to let that happen. With a cry loud enough that Max could hear it, it unleashed a Thunderbolt, aiming it straight at clefairy. A pillar intercepted part of the energy, causing the rock to shatter and the lava to spread, but the bulk of the attack hit clefairy, despite her seeing it coming.

It was enough to knock her out. "You did well," Max muttered fondly as he returned the small Fairy-type.

Frankly, he wanted a moment to try and figure out which attack that had been. Even the announcer seemed stumped. That, in and of itself, suggested a very limited use of the attack, and something that powerful… Max could probably figure out which Pokémon it was on with a little thinking and a sheet to cross out possibilities, but right now, he didn't have the time for that.

Right now, he needed to show his father that he knew how to handle a slaking.

After the creation of those pillars and being shown the Thunderbolt, the next choice was fairly easy for Max. His first ever captured Pokémon took to the field; the brown Pokémon hovering calmly in the face of the hot area in the centre of the arena.

The temporarily impassible – for non-levitating Pokémon at least – area was something Max was going to use to its fullest. He would have to, because in a straight up fight, baltoy would not last. He gave a quick order as the referee restarted the battle.

Baltoy led off by using Earthquake, adding a touch of psionic energy to it to ensure that the attack vibrated through the entire arena. Slaking stopped to weather it, but that had never been the goal.

The goal had been to collapse the pillars, and provide debris for baltoy to use. It took hold of the rubble nearest to him before shoving them off in a wide pattern. Slaking tried to use its fist as Danny's swampert had done a few hours back, but unlike Air Slash, this actually hurt, and Max saw fur being torn off the back of the left hand.

That would be the main target, then, until a better one presented itself.

Slaking recognised that it had to get close to baltoy to actually be able to do something, and it started running towards Max's Pokémon, circling around the lava in the middle.

Baltoy wasn't about to let that happen uncontested, though, first tapping the ground twice before gathering some more hot debris and flinging it over. Another arm went up to block the worst, but the delayed Rock Tomb erupted from the ground right underneath the Normal-type.

The slab shattered as slaking barrelled into it, and the arm went down reflexively, which meant the sharper debris hit the torso instead, causing an angry roar, and a smirk on Max's face.

Strength was nothing if you couldn't use it. "Ready an escape."

Tap, Rock Tomb, move, swipe, debris, move. It was a predictable pattern, but one slaking was unable to deal with, especially now that the earlier Rock Tombs had been ground into debris themselves, allowing for more projectiles for baltoy to use. All it had to do was to send the sharp rocks upwards, and slaking's chest soon exhibited more than a few bloody scratches from where they had broken skin.

And when the slaking finally made it over? Baltoy abandoned the attacks, instead using its levitation to hover over the heated area. It was cooling, as far as Max could see, but slaking was still loathe to enter it, instead opting to lob a bunch of larger rocks back at baltoy.

Those were easily sent in the opposite direction as baltoy grabbed hold of them and forced slaking to block its own thrown rocks.

Max's Pokémon scooted up one of the remaining pillars, using the height to survey the arena. Max noticed rocks beginning to move on the far side, staying low to avoid detection, but then slaking caught his own attention by taking a few bounding steps backwards.

"Spike!"

The slaking jumped, leaping across the distance to just try and get at baltoy, but Max's order meant that the Clay Doll Pokémon was ready, positioning a needle-sharp rod of psionic energy straight in the path that slaking took through the air.

Slaking did force baltoy to the ground, but not in the way it had planned to. A psionic pulse allowed for baltoy to push itself away, using the heavier slaking as a springboard, while the ape-like Pokémon roared in pain between too-warm soil making it into the chest wounds and the spike hitting it roughly in the stomach.

It was on its feet rather quickly, finally dealing with the debris by using Thunderbolt to shield itself, but Max was fairly sure it was flagging. There was something that reminded him of whenever his father's slaking was getting close to being knocked out, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Ancientpower."

Baltoy charged the attack, but slaking ignored the ball of energy hitting it, instead pounding its chest and roaring angrily.

Then a red aura erupted, and the slaking sprang forward. Baltoy was too slow in moving – without time to adjust or something to use as a springboard, it wasn't that mobile – and was buried under angry ape as it tried to pound the everliving shit out of baltoy.

There were attempts for baltoy to free itself – Max saw at least two pulses of Confusion trying to get the slaking to get off – but they weren't enough; the slaking ignoring the attacks despite audibly being annoyed by them.

The result was predictable – baltoy had gotten caught and that was just the end for it against anything heavily physical. At the same time, Max was immensely proud of what his small Pokémon had been able to do. The slaking was breathing heavily, dried blood on its chest signs of what had happened.

It was tempting to just send out manectric and zap it down, but Oscar didn't switch out at all. Or at least, he hadn't done so earlier, despite there being situations for him to do that, and so Max decided to keep manectric in reserve a tiny bit longer, instead going for a Pokémon that was quite capable of inflicting wounds of his own.

Doublade dissolved into the ground before Thunderbolt could hit it, and then got out of the ground in time for the Earthquake to do absolutely nothing, having closed half the distance already despite having to go around.

He unsheathed both swords, and flew the rest of the distance, slicing through the Thunderbolt with one sword using a Night Slash as a protective barrier. Some of it probably bled into the Ghost-type, but he didn't seem to care, focusing instead on the attack and counter of sword-to-hand combat.

But slaking was large and unwieldy, whereas doublade could move in three dimensions and was capable of vanishing into the ground on a whim. He feinted high, threatening to go for the head, but when both arms came up in an attempt to punch him – one hand overlaid with Ghost-type energy – he did just that, coming up behind the slaking before it could turn around and doing an upward slice on both legs simultaneously.

He then fled from the enraged Pokémon, but the attempt at another Frustration went nowhere as the slaking's right leg faltered. It tried to get up, but a quick in-and-out slash on the left hand that was trying to support the slaking in getting up ruined that plan as well.

Oscar returned the fallen brown Pokémon, delaying the next Pokémon as he thought about what to use. Max knew there were a few options for him to pick from: mismagius, noivern, and even the toucannon would work.

It was the mismagius, and it immediately opened up with a Mean Look, locking doublade in the battle.

And then it vanished from view. Not regular vanishing like Ghosts were capable of doing – doublade would have been able to sense that – but he seemed to have lost it completely. Max wasn't sure which attack enabled it to do that, but it couldn't be good. "Move."

Doublade did just that, moving erratically across the field as if he were trying to avoid a Dig or a Water Pokémon ready to leap out, never staying in one place and changing directions randomly every two or three seconds.

But the mismagius reappeared with a purple glow, slamming itself into honedge as it appeared from a portal in front of him, and he took a tumble down.

He righted himself before he could hit the ground, but he immediately had to get out of the way from a burst of Mystical Fire; Max recognising the attack from Olympia's delphox. Then there was a spray of Shadow Balls; two of which hit on the sheaths, forcing doublade back further.

"Night Slash," Max ordered as another barrage of dark orbs converged on doublade. The Dark-type energy countered the Ghost-type move for the most part, though some of the orbs still hit where he could not shield.

With swords out, doublade headed for mismagius, who tried to block with a second burst of Mystical Fire; one that doublade nearly flew into until he suddenly dropped several feet, trying to trick mismagius into thinking it had been a hit as he started glowing with an Iron Head to tackle the other Ghost.

It was a glancing hit, sending mismagius spinning and himself onwards. He stopped in an instant, uncaring of physics, and lashed out with a regular blade, barely missing the tip of the witch's hat and forcing it to vanish again in that weird attack.

"Patience," Max told doublade. "Hold position and prepare to counte… Left!"

His noticing of the opening portal and a quick dive by doublade made the attack ineffective, but mismagius also avoided the Night Slash that Max's Pokémon retaliated with. It flipped around, going for one powerful Shadow Ball that overpowered the Night Slash block, sending doublade lower and giving it the opportunity for another Mystical Fire.

Shadow Sneak got doublade out of the fire, though barely, and he reappeared a few feet away as embers died down, soaring upwards with regular swords ready to hit this time.

He managed to keep mismagius from vanishing into the portal, but neither did the attacks do all that much. Oscar's Ghost was slippery, and capable of summoning enough Shadow Balls quickly to interrupt endless barrages of hacking and slashing, forcing doublade back whenever he got too close for comfort. There were some hits, but they were glancing, and it became apparent that Max really should not have kept honedge in.

But he was locked in now, thanks to Mean Look.

Then, suddenly, mismagius stopped, allowing swords to hit it unfettered for a few hits. Sadly, doublade wasn't able to use Night Slash, and when he did, mismagius let out a wail as a ring of purple energy came forth from inside itself.

Doublade was too close, and the Payback attack – as Max realised – was unavoidable, and too much for the Ghost-Steel hybrid. The Mean Look lifted, and Max thanked his Pokémon softly as the announcer told everyone to go find a drink while the break was ongoing.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Ash made a grab into the large bowl off to his left, but his hand only touched warm glass. "Pikachu, did you..."

A look at the mouse's cheeks made Ash stop; his starter looking like he'd been found with his paw in the cookie jar. Or the popcorn bowl. He chuckled at the greedy mouse, fingers raking through the fur on the top of his starter's head.

"I'm not going to make more now. It's three in the morning," his companion, and the owner of the apartment he was currently in, said from her beanbag. "At least my sisters took Gym duty tomorrow."

Ash chuckled at Misty's comment, glancing over at one of his oldest companions. "So, what do you think so far? Any good?"

"Not enough Water-types," Misty said deadpan. "Hoenn is like 90 % water. How do they not have more of those?"

"Probably something about not really wanting Water-types that couldn't fight on land. That's half of them, right?" Ash wasn't certain, but the number made sense, and it was his own reason for not going further than kingler with his own Water-types. "At least Danny had his swampert."

"Yeah, it looked good. Trained well, played to swampert's strong points, did well with creating ammunition for it to use… He should teach it Stone Edge to hit faster Pokémon more accurately, but it worked until that torterra took a leaf out of Danny's own book." She got up from her lazy lounge, stretching; her shirt hiking up and revealing a bit of skin. "But yeah, I can see how they were a thorn in that team's side. Swampert and aggron together were a nightmare in close quarters, I can tell, even without the Mega Evolution. Being able to lift a torterra like that..."

She trailed off softly. slightly awe-struck. "What is it, Misty?" Ash wondered after ten seconds of silence.

"Oh, nothing. Just remembered I need to mail Professor Oak about something. Some kind of Mega Evolution experiment," she said as she grabbed and poured herself some juice. "Max hasn't shown anything as impressive as Danny yet, by the way. A head for strategy, sure, and some good luck with the Metronomes, but nothing you or I couldn't do. Is that coming?"

A yellow mouse jumped onto the arm of the chair Ash was sitting in, and he adjusted his arm to scratch the Electric-type's back. "He has a few tricks up his sleeve." Literally, since the boy was wearing a long-sleeved shirt. "You heard that he was the one who helped Lance hold of yveltal, right?"

"Only heard it half a dozen times in the two days after, and I wasn't even trying to watch TV those days," Misty replied. "Well, Max was anonymous then, but sure. What about it?"

"I think we'll see how he did that next." The orange-haired Gym Leader gave him a strange look. "Really. You'll see."

"It's another Mega Evolution, isn't it?" Misty said, drawling her sentence as the TV went to another commercial. "On a Pokémon he hasn't used yet this tournament. How in kyogre's name did the two of them get their hands on Mega Stones?" She held up a hand to stop Ash from answering. "No, wait, Danny's was given as a reward. I'm assuming Max's was too. Still impressive they can use..."

She froze, and Ash hid a smile. Not well enough, if the glare Misty sent him was any indication. "Wait a minute here. One of Max's Pokémon was used to hold off yveltal, I remember that much. But that means..."

"It was a bit of an accident, from what Max said," Ash told the Gym Leader. "He had the Mega Stone and was using it as a necklace. Y'know, like Drake did with his dragonite's pokéball." Though Ash hadn't ever told that specific fact to the teen, as far as he remembered. Misty nodded slowly. "He found a Key Stone and then—"

"And then the Mega Evolution happened. I've been around you long enough to know that's generally how things go." Ash blushed as Misty unmuted the TV, which was returning to the regular broadcast. "You want to tell me which Pokémon it is?"

At that moment, the camera showed a flash of both Trainers' faces: both of them ready to resume by the looks of it. Ash didn't know what to make of the opponent's face, what with the heavy beard, but Max was looking eager, eyes alight behind those new glasses he'd picked up a few months back. "Oh, you'll see in a minute."

 **~~§~~§~~**

It was time. Max brought a hand to his wristband, subtly unlocking the pressure lock on one side, before sending manectric out with a lazy underhand throw.

He _knew_ when the copper necklace had been spotted by everyone. It helped that he looked up himself, seeing manectric being zoomed in on, and he waited for the announcer to actually say words instead of spluttering.

"It… Ladies and gentlemen, this is… This is unheard of. _Another_ Mega Evolution today, and both users of it travelling together… It…"

An idea struck Max, and he instantly decided to run with it. A bit of show was allowed, right?

He cleared his throat, and the hard drop in noise around the stadium amused Max far more than it should. "Manectric? Show them the power that allowed you to fight yveltal."

With that, he tore off the upper band on his wristband completely, stuffing it in his pocket while the Key Stone and Mega Stone glowed. The bond formed as easily as breathing, feeling like a comfortable pyjama, except far more energetic, and Mega manectric was ready to face the mismagius that had knocked honedge out. With far more ease than Max had liked, he added.

The mismagius attempted to go for another Phantom Force, as he now knew, but manectric remained calm, sniffing in the air a few times, trying to detect the Ghost with Odor Sleuth.

It didn't seem to work at first, but then manectric turned around, charging up a Thunderbolt in an instant, and the crackling energy hit the mismagius right as it reappeared in this dimension, forcing the Ghost down to the ground. She pounced, fangs also crackling, but mismagius vanished into the ground, disappointingly.

It couldn't stay underground for long, and the moment it reappeared, manectric was back on the chase. Quick as a flash, she crossed the distance, shaping a short jolt of electricity to block the Shadow Ball that was trying to intercept her path. The explosion snapped at her fur, but she simply didn't care, instead leaping up, and surprising the mismagius before it could vanish, biting into the large hat and delivering a Thunder Fang.

A shiver filtered through the bond, echoing some bad taste, somehow, but it was gone a moment later, replaced with the roar of impending Thunder.

Mismagius was entirely unable to block; the Mystical Fire not nearly enough to stop the attack.

Max paced in his box as he waited for Oscar to send his next Pokémon out. Pure energy ran through the teenager's veins; a comforting and familiar feeling that had he had really started to notice a few weeks ago, after fighting Wulfric. He wasn't sure what it was caused by or if it even did anything, but it felt _amazing,_ and if Danny had thought something strange about Max's new habit of pacing in lulls, he hadn't said anything.

The pacing stopped as the battle resumed, a Thunderbolt and a Boomburst immediately lancing out across the distance. The attacks met in the middle, exploding, and creating a shock wave that washed over both manectric and Oscar's noivern without too much issue. The Dragon-type used it to gain some height before flipping over with wings glowing blue.

And it unleashed a storm. Hurricane-force winds tore across the field, manectric having to brace herself against the sudden onslaught, but she did so without too much issue, waiting patiently to see what the noivern was going to do.

The answer to that was to unleash a Dragon Pulse, but those didn't hit as manectric did a few deft jumps to avoid the attack, including the spin given to it by Oscar's Pokémon.

Then, suddenly, Max felt a surge, and knew that manectric had seen enough. She charged forward, yellow light dancing on the tips of her spiked fur. Electricity shot up with a snap-crackle, and noivern barely avoided being hit, such was the speed.

With powerful wing beats, the flying Pokémon started moving again, accelerating, rolling whenever another thin lance of probing electricity tried to hit it, and using those rolls as a way of changing direction quickly so that it was never up against the outer shield.

Every roll was perilously close to the tendril of yellow, though, manectric's accuracy unerring as she sniffed out exactly what the noivern would do.

And then she opened up, _life_ flowing through Max as the cautious Thundershocks turned into ferocious, jagged Thunderbolts. The change was too sudden for noivern, and it took one hit, only avoiding the next because the fall was faster than manectric had anticipated. It was able to fend of the third Thunderbolt with a hasty but good Protect, which allowed it to regain control of its flight.

The counter-attack was fast and ferocious, manectric having to jump over a Boomburst in all haste and taking an Air Slash or two for her trouble instead, but they didn't bother her. The yellow Pokémon slipped into a Quick Attack to close the distance, jumping up, over another Boomburst sent down into her path. She tried to hit the flying noivern with Spark, but when the noivern moved up, she transferred the power to the tips of her fur, and a careful discharge of electricity straight up hit Oscar's Pokémon, which screeched loudly.

The Flying-type went up higher, gathering energy for a moment for a next attack; one that Max had never seen in person. He willed manectric to start moving as the noivern spiralled down, unleashing a Draco Meteor shower over the field.

One of the attacks did end up hitting her, but it was nothing too bad, not even forcing her to break her lope.

Then manectric stopped for a moment, allowing the Hurricane that noivern whipped up to hit her as she retrieved electricity from within her.

The pillar of Thunder that went out enveloped noivern and the shield it threw up at the last possible second fully, and Max heard the shield shatter a moment later, sending the draconic Pokémon to the ground, where it landed in a heap. "Finish it."

Noivern had other plans, and manectric ate a sudden Boomburst to the abdomen, sending her flying off on her own, rolling across the former lava bed. She got up, shaking soot off of her fur, but noivern had been able to retake flight, using the time to unleash another Dragon Pulse.

A Thunderbolt blocked it with contemptuous ease; the resulting explosion perfect for blocking manectric through both sight and sound. She used those precious few seconds to move closer before jumping up, her mouth glowing with a Thunder Fang.

The added weight suddenly hanging off of a wing caused noivern to lose control, heading down quickly as it was unable to dislodge the canine, even with the other wing trying to slam it. They landed in a crash, but Max felt the Thunderbolt building, and knew that it was over this time.

Manectric did keep it up for longer than Max felt she had to, probably to make sure that the knock-out stuck this time.

He searched the bond, nodding as he did so. Manectric was okay, though slightly tired. Nothing too much, but the attacks were starting to take their toll just from being hit.

As if sensing his small worry, she looked over, barking once, tongue lolling out happily. Max snorted, grinning right back at his Pokémon as he saw the weezing appear in the background.

The Poison-type immediately threw out a Smokescreen to shield itself, but Max had seen that strategy more than a few times, and he ordered manectric to spread a Thunder Wave into the smoke.

The probing electricity didn't hit anything, but a glob of poison spat out revealed where weezing was nevertheless, and both Max and manectric pounced on that; he with an order, she by already using the attack before he had even finished saying the words. A Thunder shot forward, but there was no direct hit; weezing having moved away, somewhere inside the smoke.

There was, however, a chemical reaction as the electricity set off explosions, revealing the weezing as it left the safety of its hiding place, just to the right of where manectric had shot. It immediately spat forth a jet of Flame from the main head, forcing manectric away from her position.

Then the small head used Shadow Ball, hitting manectric in her flank.

The two heads worked together in unison, forcing manectric to keep moving or be hit, never giving her the time to concentrate enough to actually launch an attack their way. She didn't need much time for that, which made it all the more impressive, even though Max would dearly love it if it hadn't been aimed at him in the first place.

"Closer," Max ordered after a moment of thought. "And Discharge."

That, at least, didn't need to be aimed. Hopefully, it would be enough to disrupt the pattern and allow manectric to go back to what they did best: to dictate the flow of battle on their own instead of being on the defensive all the time.

Weezing had to allow manectric to move closer, though a few Shadow Balls sent in her path forced the canine to move away several times in order to avoid being showered by sharp rocks much like slaking had been. It was okay, and as long as manectric kept up the impressively good dodging, Max figured he was fine in the battle.

Then things happened fast.

Manectric, having already charged up the Discharge while running, reached the point where she could unleash it and conceivably hit the weezing. At the same time, Oscar's Poison-type seemed to spew forth gases, though nothing actually came out.

There was a small jet of flame from the small head that met the incoming Discharge. And then, Max was blinded by a sudden explosion; his bond turning from fine to ragged to—

He recoiled as manectric hit the barrier overhead, and the bond _shattered,_ a shudder running through Max, incapacitating him for several seconds as he tried to recover from the sudden emptiness and the pain that had come along with it.

The announcer helpfully filled in a theory of what had happened, even as Max saw Oscar pre-emptively return a conscious, but _very_ battered, weezing. The Discharge, the flame, and the gas had caused a huge explosion, not unlike an exploding gas main. The remnants of fire and the sheer devastation around where it had happened – there was a several feet deep crater there, and that had not been there a minute before – made that theory sound plausible, though Max dearly wanted to know what gas had actually caused the explosion.

He shook his head, shoving the last remnants of pain away as he returned manectric. He had to send out his Pokémon first; not that it really mattered. With weezing returned, Oscar only had one more Pokémon left, and it would have to beat, or do great damage to, both of Max's remaining Pokémon. He liked those odds.

Thirty seconds later, he was wishing he had not thought that.

Facing xatu was a dull brown Pokémon, with spiky pincers atop its head. Normally, Max would've been okay with the pinsir, but this one came with a set of wings that allowed it to fly; the clear wings beating fast to allow the Stag Beetle Pokémon to remain airborne.

He had not anticipated Oscar having a Mega of his own, and now the weezing's almost sacrificial play made a lot more sense. It flew, meaning it was vulnerable to manectric's attacks, on top of the unrevealed Fire Fang still in her arsenal as well. It was Oscar's bet that his own Mega could deal with two of Max's Pokémon.

As with every Pokémon Oscar used, Mega pinsir was agile, though there was a certain heaviness to the movements as well. It wasn't something Max could exploit, sadly, and xatu soon found that he had to teleport away, just to avoid being clamped in between those huge spiked pincers.

And then pinsir vanished in a poof of Dark-type energy, reappearing behind the recently Teleported Pokémon, knocking it up into the air with a swipe.

Max's Pokémon retaliated by summoning some of the ample debris, but pinsir did something similar, launching a Stone Edge at the same time as xatu unleashed his own Confusion-aided barrage while still flying backwards; having focused exclusively on gathering the rocks. It cost him; the Stone Edge breaking his concentration long enough for the snap Teleport to not work, and he landed inside the recently made crater, and a moment later, pinsir landed on top of him, pincers glowing with the light of X-Scissor.

Xatu summoned sky blue and violet, but the pinsir cared not one whit for that, instead landing the Bug-type move before taking a step back and reaching down.

Xatu was held inside the pincers a moment later, painful spikes digging into his body. Max shouted for him to Teleport away, which he was able to do after a moment, reappearing fifteen feet away at the other end of the crater.

And then Mega pinsir threw out a Hyper Beam; the orange strangely tinged with blue for some reason. The attack was unmistakable, though, and xatu stood no chance at dodging or mitigating the effects, and the Mystic Pokémon was carried all the way from the edge of the crater to the edge of the arena, rolling up against the shields.

And being knocked out.

Max shook his head in disbelief. That had been seriously impressive. A part of him feared for xatu, and for ninjask as well, but he quashed that part of him. Fear did nothing in battles except cause freezing at the worst possible time. He would worry later.

Even so, ninjask had a harsh task up ahead. One good grab, and he was a goner. He had no way of escaping like xatu, and if pinsir grabbed him while the ninjask's own forearms were facing away from the larger Bug-type, there was no attack he had that could actually force pinsir to release him.

"Stay at range," was Max's order, though it was easier said than done. Ninjask was good with the Shadow Balls, immediately releasing a small spray of them and hitting at least half a dozen on various parts of pinsir's body, but he would have to keep it up for a long time to make any headway.

And then the pinsir somehow used Quick Attack, causing Max to bite back a swear. Ninjask was faster by virtue of being one of the fastest Pokémon alive in short sprints, but even then, the other Bug-type came awfully close to hitting; the larger body helping in nearly cornering ninjask.

Then again, the smaller body helped in getting away, so Max figured that evened out.

After that, pinsir didn't go in close again, instead landing, settling down near the crater, allowing an easy target for ninjask to hit. He did so gleefully, though Max wondered what Oscar's plan was. Letting yourself be hit like that had to have a plan involved.

Moments later, he snapped his fingers, just a heartbeat ahead of pinsir actually executing the Stone Edge. Even he, however, hadn't anticipated the sheer size; with well over a hundred, if not closer to two-hundred, pieces of debris from earlier battles all arrayed against and launched at ninjask.

He dodged most of them, to his credit, but then pinsir repeated its earlier trick, stepping through the Feint Attack and slamming ninjask into the ground. It reached down, and…

And Max decided that he couldn't win. Not from this. He returned ninjask, exhaling slowly.

Danny had left with his own head held high. The least Max could do was to emulate that, despite feeling like he had been outmatched in the last two battles.

No, that wasn't right. He may have been outmatched, but the same thing had happened with his own manectric. That was the power of Mega Evolution, and a carefully calculated risk from Oscar had allowed him to step away with the victory. The Pokémon Max had that could counter the pinsir to some degree were manectric, who would blast it; doublade, who would just slip away; vulpix, who would just set it on fire; and maybe baltoy or sceptile, and only for manectric was he certain of actually having a chance to beat it in the one-on-one.

"That was a rather close battle, wouldn't you agree?" Oscar said as they met in an antechamber off the press conference room, ten minutes later. The man's posh voice – so at odds with his unkempt look, still elicited a bit of amusement in Max, despite the situation. "I don't think I've ever seen someone dismantle slaking so thoroughly before. You'll have to tell me the secret."

Max smiled, finding, to his own surprise, that he actually meant it. "I've been around one since I was five, and I've watched them battle since then too."

"Your father?"

"My Dad," Max agreed. "Where'd you get the… Pinsirite?" he guessed, hoping he had figured out the naming scheme. "I didn't even know there was one."

"In Prudan, not far from my family's lands. I kept it a secret, and rather a good idea I did so too, I do think," Oscar said, his voice light as he looked at Max's wristband; the Key Stone once again covered up. "Well, I think we gave the audience a good show. Now let's get this growlithe-and-ponyta show over with. Be a good day when they stop doing these," he added in a softer voice, unwilling to insult some politician who had just entered the room.

Max couldn't agree more.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The clock struck eleven, and around him, Max saw the lights of Prism Tower be extinguished, leaving just the lights of Lumiose itself as ample light for him to see by, drowning out all but the brightest stars that weren't covered by the intermittent clouds up above.

Despite the time, the city felt busy; a metropolis that never really slept, but merely snoozed. Even up here, Max imagined he could feel the thrum of activity, even as many people prepared to call it a day.

It was a different kind of beauty than the one he was used to in Hoenn: which was more peaceful, down to earth, tranquil at night, but one he appreciated anyway as he thought about what the past year here had brought.

And there was a damned lot in that category.

His mind had passed over most things, usually in order.

The utter coincidence at meeting Serena: their guide to Kalos as they guided her through being a Trainer; though by now, everything had turned into companionship of the best kind, forged in fire.

The first meeting with Team Flare, who they'd been told to look out for, but had never expected to actually meet like that. Nor had Max expected it to escalate like it had, but they had been in the wrong spot at the wrong time twice over after that. In a way, it reminded him of Ash and his unnatural luck of being in the worst place possible for some things – LaRousse and the Tree of Beginning came to mind – but even though they'd come out more than unscathed physically… He could've done without the weeks of stress in August and September.

And the whole fighting a Legendary that could kill you bit. Also not good. He still hadn't figured out what to say to his parents about that… How could he explain that they had been in multiple fights with a villainous team and that they'd gone looking for it, three times. He could get away with Coumarine, probably, but after that… They would expect Max to have just told the police or something and for them to _not have been there_ in the first place.

But they had told people – just not the police – about Geosenge, and he'd had an excuse for Durocor. He really wasn't sure that his parents would buy that either.

It was a huge sodding mess.

He felt, rather than saw or heard, xatu Teleport in, though he hadn't noticed the Psychic-type actually leaving. Footsteps followed, and Max recognised them easily, echoing in the empty observation deck. "Does Clemont know you're here?"

"No," Max admitted softly as Danny walked up beside him. "Don't think he'd mind, though."

"So, what's on your mind?" Danny asked as he pressed a hand against Max's right shoulder. The older teenager was wearing his pyjamas underneath his coat, and the shoelaces were untied as well, Max noticed with a glance downwards. "Yeah, I was getting ready for bed. Now answer the question. You weren't this mopey after your loss. What changed?"

"Just thinking about that talk."

Danny sighed deeply, his own mood instantly soured as well. "Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that either, and you have it way worse. At least we'll have each other there."

That brought a small smile to Max's face. It had taken a bit of cajoling, but their parents had agreed that it'd be better if they could tell everything as a pair, since both of them were as involved. Danny knew basically everything about the other things anyway, and he didn't think Danny's parents would care too much about that in the first place. It hadn't involved their son, after all. "Working together is what we do best." He let a smirk appear on his face. "Except tomorrow."

"Except tomorrow," Danny agreed, his voice a mix between eagerness and slight… apprehension? "Don't get me wrong, Max, but I wasn't expecting us to battle like this."

"If I remember right, you said something about the second round of our first League," Max replied. "Way back when on your twelfth birthday." He shrugged, though it turned into a stretch; tired muscles wanting to sleep, but his mind wasn't helping. "Stakes are higher now."

His best friend nodded. "Yeah..." Danny said, and Max recognised the tone. Something had just occurred to him. "At the same time… One of us is going to go home with an actual prize. At a national League."

Max didn't understand how Danny hadn't realised that before, but maybe it'd only sunk in just now. "I just..." He stopped, clearing his throat. "Let's make a promise, okay? Let's promise that we'll go in, and don't hold anything back. Every trick you can think of; we use. No hesitation, no remorse. We're friends, but just for that hour or so… We're not."

"I'm not Morrison," Danny replied amusedly. "But if it makes ya feel better… I promise." Max did the same. "How long has it been since we did something like that? Shalour, when you were angry with me? Didn't you sweep the floor with me then?"

The grimace was faked, but it didn't fail to make Max chuckle. "Yeah, I did. And I somehow don't think it's going to be like that tomorrow. Your team came together since then. I heard a lot of good things about you when I was watching."

"Funny, I heard the same," Danny said drily. "Even Keith and Jane got in on that."

"Did Keith say he was glad we never fight at full strength again?"

"You know it."

Both of them turned towards the window, surveying sleepy and tranquil Lumiose City.: the site of new friends and new adventures. No words were spoken as they did so, and it was only when Max yawned, maybe five minutes later, that the comfortable spell was broken. "Let's go back?"

"You're the one who left. I'm just here because I wanted to know where you were."

"Yeah, you did that," Max agreed. "Always looking out for me, are ya?"

"Someone has to."

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _ **Mega Evolution Record Shattered Again**_

 _LUMIOSE, KALOS – The semi-finals of the 132nd Kalos League were ones for the record books, in more ways than one. Not only were two of the participants not even fourteen yet, setting a new record in Kalos since modern rules came into force, but one of them also revealed that he was capable of Mega Evolving a Pokémon as well._

 _[…]_

 _When asked at the press conference, referencing a comment the young teenager had made earlier, Mr. Maple did confirm that he had been capable of Mega Evolving his Pokémon since the Flare Uprising, shattering the previous age record for Mega Evolving, which had been held by his best friend Danny Birch, by three months, as opposed to the one month everyone had initially expected._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Can't win them all, though I hope I made it clear that they didn't go down without a fight, despite the few stomps that were put in there.

Metronome moves in order: Psyshock, Dragon Rush, Defog, Acid, Heat Crash, Metal Sound, Precipice Blades. Mostly random, except for Precipice, which I wanted for the baltoy section, and Dragon Rush, which was Memento first.


	41. Concluding Fireworks

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 41: Concluding Fireworks**

Serena looked around in wonder as she entered the private box atop Lumiose Stadium. Not due to the luxury – it was more luxurious than the regular seats, sure – but more due to the people she saw at first, discovering more with every passing moment.

The box sat maybe three dozen people, plus a few uniform-clad waiters walking around, but within seconds, she noticed three Gym Leaders, the remaining members of the Elite Four, Diantha, the Prime Minister, the President, Professor Sycamore, Max's opponent from the semi-finals, and at least two others she had seen at the award ceremony, but had forgotten the name or job of.

"Serena, Jane, Keith," Clemont greeted them, being the one closest to them and closest to the door. He walked up, giving Serena a firm handshake after feigning going for a polite kiss on the back of her hand. "Did either of them get any sleep last night? After they were in my tower at eleven in the evening."

That was news to Serena. "Wouldn't know. I did sleep," she said as she thought back. "But… Think they slept. They wouldn't lose sleep over _this._ "

Clemont caught the emphasis, nodding before stepping aside, inviting them further in. Within moments, a waiter had walked up, asking what they wanted to drink – and apart from Keith cheekily trying to order wine, nothing happened until they found where they had been assigned to sit. The seats were grouped into three sets of four seats each row, going three seats high. Serena had been given a seat on the lowest row, on the right side of the box, close to where she entered, while Keith, Jane, and Clemont, too, were one row behind her.

Serena, on the other hand, had Drasna right next to her, and Max's opponent – Oscar, she remembered, on her left in one of the two seats that were assigned to the semi-finalists.

Danny's opponent wasn't visible, though, as far as she could tell. She leant around, wondering if the sour teenager was lurking around somewhere, but Oscar cleared his throat next to her. "He declined the invitation, preferring to prepare alone for the final," the scruffy-looking, but smooth-sounding, Prudanite told her.

That did sound like what Paul would do, just from what Serena had seen and heard. He'd been polite to Danny in their press conferences, but the assorted press? The radio interview, which she'd heard fragments of? She had been able to hear his disdain for everything that wasn't battling or training. "And you don't need to?"

"Different people have different rituals," Oscar replied, smiling over a glass of some kind of red fruit drink. "I never felt like I should seclude myself that long before a battle." He nodded down at the currently empty field. "I imagine they have certain rituals as well."

A hand-painted figurine came to mind, though Serena had no idea what Danny did. "Yeah. Never really thought about it that way, though."

"Every Trainer has them, dear," came the soft and comforting voice of Drasna from her other side. "We don't call them rituals per se, but everyone has them. Even you." She smiled when Serena gave her a look. "Or didn't you do something to calm yourself before your Master Class appearances?" Serena didn't reply, but Drasna's smile got wider, though it was the kind of smile Serena remembered seeing on her grandmother. "What do you think the score will be, dears?"

It took a moment for everyone to realise that she had included Keith, Jane, and even Oscar in that statement, and Serena heard Keith and Jane confer in whispers.

"It's Max's battle to lose," Jane broke the relative silence, and her boyfriend nodded beside her. "6-4."

"How they work around each other's Mega Evolution is the most important thing," Oscar said next. "My victory was because Max had nothing to deal with pinsir more than any appreciable skill difference, which may be damning considering I'm twice as old." The smile was… Oh, what was the word… Self-deprecating? "6-5, to he who does that best."

All eyes – or at least eight of them – fell on Serena. "Max is stronger. Danny knows that, too. Most of the time, he's the one telling Max that." She heard Keith snort in agreement; the boy probably the one who knew it best apart from her. "But Danny knows how Max thinks a lot better than the other way around. It's going to be close, but… 6-5 to Max, only because I know what they both selected."

She wasn't sure if Danny's plan was going to work out, but she would have to see. Stranger things had happened, and the only thing she knew for sure was that neither of them would hold back. They were too good friends for that.

 **~~§~~§~~**

" _Monsieur_ Maple? It is time," said the League official. Needlessly, since Max could tell time just fine, but he didn't comment on that, instead nodding, and allowing the man to lead him down known and empty corridors. A left, then a right, and a quick right-left afterwards, led them to one of the two participant entrances.

A shimmering barrier blocked sound from the audience from entering the corridor, along with making what little he could see of the arena tint blue. It reminded Max of xatu, except it didn't feel like something xatu did. Closer to espurr.

He brought one hand to his wrist – touching his uncovered Key Stone – before bringing the same to his chest. Hanging over his comfortable long-sleeved polo shirt, twine tucked away under his collar, was the figurine Keith had given him for Yule.

Max would have loved to wear Danny's shirt as well, but it was November, and unlike Hoenn, Kalos was fairly temperate, meaning he couldn't do that because temperatures were too low. The trip they'd made down to Clemont's house earlier that morning, for a Kalosian brunch, had been chilly on the way there, and if it hadn't been for them being in Lumiose, Max would've expected heavy fog.

He was the first to be allowed to enter, and with a deep breath to prepare himself, he stepped up and through the barrier, stretching it like some kind of gelatine.

He was promptly half-blinded and at least three-quarter deafened.

His right arm went up, the Key Stone reflecting some camera flashes as Max waved his hand at the audience. The show still made him feel a bit stupid, but it was becoming easier as he had to do it more. Some small part of him missed just walking onto the field, but after the past year, that just wasn't an option any longer.

Danny was always more comfortable with that, and it showed in how he walked onto the field. Easy waving, casual turning around, and he just looked more at ease in general. Max didn't need to look up at the large screens for that; just looking into the distance told him that.

A minute and a half later, after some announcer introductions, Max palmed his first pokéball. He took a deep breath, pushing out any and all nerves he might have left, and sent out espurr first.

Klefki was a decent outcome. Spars between the two Pokémon were about evenly split, and it wasn't something Max felt the need to switch for – which he would have done for froslass, dusclops, drapion, swampert, or aggron.

Espurr opened with a Light Screen; the barrier immediately going to work as a Mirror Shot tried to make its way through. It did, but a nearby rock was an effective enough second barrier. The Steel-type energy bled out, and espurr kept debris from lashing back onto her. Instead, she sent it back at Danny's klefki, and the small Pokémon threw up a quick Protect to disintegrate the rocks, depriving espurr of her created ammunition.

Max's Pokémon thought nothing of it, taking a larger rock and letting it drop onto the ground while klefki flew up, staying outside of the Light Screen. Barely, but that was enough; the barrier went both ways, blocking energy-based attacks. It was why espurr was using the rocks – physical matter passed through unharmed.

It was a drawback, but one that Max accepted. And one that Danny worked around, by having klefki use Spikes from up on high. The Steel-type flung them upwards before diving into the Light Screen, angling downward and setting espurr up for being attacked from above and from in front.

"Jump and lift," Max told espurr as the first caltrops started to pierce the shield. The small Pokémon launched herself at least ten feet into the air before releasing a tiny bit of her potential with a movement of her ear. The result was a powerful dome of psionic energy – espurr's version of baltoy's Confusion pulse – that sent all the Spikes flying off; a few ricocheting off each other, as well as upending an unsuspecting klefki, causing Mirror Shot to be launched downwards instead.

The pulse also destroyed the remnants of the Light Screen, shards vanishing in the afternoon light as espurr landed safely. She immediately rolled to the side as klefki tried for another Mirror Shot, but her own Psybeam retaliation missed as well as klefki anticipated it perfectly.

"Get close, draw Protect, then Confusion."

Max knew klefki was incredibly fast at summoning Protects, and crafty enough to avoid Psybeams, leaving only a psionic grab, a Confusion, or fast-moving debris as options for espurr to exploit. Disarming Voice would do less than nothing.

The small grey Pokémon dove through a Fairy Wind before summoning spikes from all angles to converge on klefki. It used the Protect – even Steel-types did not like being hit by Spikes – and that was just the opening espurr needed, letting out a shrill cry and grabbing hold of klefki's body and mind.

Danny's Pokémon broke free with a spray of Spikes, but that was exactly what Max had been counting on, and espurr immediately grabbed hold of the projectiles to send them back at the Steel-type. There was no Protect to stop them this time, and together, they forced klefki down.

A Mirror Shot missed, instead cracking the ground as espurr jumped, using klefki's inability to focus on anything but the cacophony in its brain to its fullest. Her ears went up once again; and with a barely visible dome, klefki was slammed into the ground.

Danny's Pokémon clattered out of the way of another Psybeam, before throwing up a hasty Protect as espurr tried to grab it psionically. "Grab the shield!" Max yelled quickly, before espurr could dissolve her attack, and he knew when the Psychic energy clamped on to the green ball, as it suddenly flared under renewed pressure.

And it broke soon after, unable to withstand the all-around attack. Tendrils reached in, grabbing hold of klefki and immediately throwing it off to the side, into the side of a small hill.

Then espurr collapsed part of it on top of the keychain as well, and that – after ten seconds of klefki not bursting out – was enough for her to win the first round.

Max wanted to switch her out, but first, he wanted to see which Pokémon Danny would bring out. It wasn't impossible for her to make headway against some of them, but normally, he'd just let her recover a bit. She'd thrown around quite a lot of power, after all.

He was not expecting the aggron. Hell, Danny had explicitly said, over commiseration dinner the night before, that he _liked_ using aggron last, having sounded completely honest and looking at Max as he had said… so…

Well, apparently, Danny could do bold-faced lies, and now he was facing down a Mega aggron. He had a plan for that. "Vulpix, you're up."

Max cast one last look at the intact arena from his elevated platform, but then the referee gave the signal, and aggron immediately created an Earthquake, shattering the even ground. The energy travelled along the floor, but vulpix managed to not fall over as the arena was rearranged around her, retaliating with a Flamethrower that did force out a Protect, making Max grin with satisfaction. "Confuse Ray."

Aggron did indeed start running towards vulpix, who was flanked by two walls taller than the Steel-type. It was a formation Danny liked to create, to block movement in one or two ways, but it was predictable, and Max could exploit that. Confuse Ray connected, and…

Aggron just kept running. Vulpix was a tiny bit too late on the response, getting a kick to her ribs for her trouble, sailing back at least thirty feet and narrowly avoiding being slammed into a jagged rock. A Bulldoze followed it up; only the omnidirectional aspect allowing for vulpix to not be knocked up into the sky again. She managed to ride the wave out, getting to her paws and launching a Fire Spin at the very confused aggron.

It hit, but the fire also allowed aggron to focus once again, and the next Bulldoze was targeted, forcing vulpix to move forward in order to not be launched too far backwards. She managed to crest the wave of earth expertly, but then she had to roll to her left to avoid a Metal Claw that scythed down, embedding itself in the ground with a mighty grating noise.

Aggron carved a furrow in the arena, sending rock and soil at vulpix, interrupting her wind-up towards another Fire Spin as she turned her head away to minimise the odds of rocks hitting something vital. "Up and Flamethrower, now!" Max yelled as he saw aggron lower his head.

The jump, flip, and landing were all perfect, and the Flamethrower bathed aggron in flame, but one thing Max had not counted on was that Danny's Pokémon stopped in place instead of running on. It meant he was a bit more affected by the fire, but it also meant his tail was in the perfect place to lash out, and it hit vulpix right on her behind. Even the tip of the tail still displaced vulpix well over fifteen feet, landing her in between the pillars she had been trapped between earlier.

An Earthquake nearly collapsed the terrain on her, the vulpine using Quick Attack to get the hell out of there, exiting on Danny's side of the debris, away from aggron. It also meant Max had no vision of her any longer, though she remedied that by popping up off to the side, barely avoiding a well-aimed but slightly too slow Bulldoze.

He needed to create a weakness to exploit. That was the best way for him to win against the near force of nature that Danny wielded just as it had been the best way to defeat Korrina's lucario, months ago. "Fire Spin," he told vulpix.

The tornado did its job by forcing the Protect, and aggron returned fire the moment he could drop the shield; an Earthquake sending vulpix to her knees in order to not fall over fully.

That was the signal Danny was waiting for, Max knew. "Flamethrower as hot as you can," he blurted out quickly as thundering, deafening, steps moved in on his Fire-type.

There were two cries of pain. One was vulpix's, and Max duly tracked her path through the air, seeing her land hard on the other side, instantly lying still, and if there were twitches, he couldn't see. The other was aggron's, and a red-hot patch had appeared on the left vambrace. The Steel-type tried to cool it down by waving it through the air, but Max was not about to give him time to do that unpunished.

He returned vulpix, only vaguely hearing the referee's comment that she was knocked out – he had figured that out for himself, thank you very much – and instantly sent out sceptile. "The left arm is the weakness!"

Then, he took a step backwards, using this time to drink some water. There was nothing more to be said. Sceptile was infinitely better at swordplay than Max could ever hope to be, and barking orders would only lead to confusion that neither of them could afford.

Max's starter went for dual Leaf Blades, opting for comfort at first. He twisted into aggron's guard, attempting to strike directly at the lower half of the steel band, but a knee dissuaded him. A locked blade into the claws allowed him to flip out of the space, the landing comfortable and the duck to avoid a Metal Claw easy.

Sceptile's right blade slashed diagonally, hitting the vambrace and causing aggron to roar; a sudden stomp onto the ground unbalancing the Grass-type enough to allow Danny's Pokémon to catch the blade in a Metal Claw. He tried to twist the energy, but sceptile dropped the blade faster, replacing it a moment later with purple energy.

The Dark-infused slash didn't go for the hot patch as sceptile ducked under a wild Metal Claw, aiming to hit the foot of the Mega-Evolved Pokémon. He had to pay for it: aggron landing a heavy punch that caused the Grass-type to soar several feet, but it was a success. The feet were the least-armoured part that sceptile could easily reach, and reducing the already low mobility of Danny's Pokémon was crucial.

The distance allowed a Bulldoze to be created, but with two quick jumps to safety, sceptile avoided that, before closing in again, only a right Night Slash glowing this time. He feinted low, feigning to go for the foot again, and when aggron crouched slightly to defend, sceptile jumped up and over, landing on aggron's back, his left hand immediately going for the draining move that he'd learnt as a treecko.

Aggron violently tossed himself around, forcing sceptile to abandon his place a moment later to avoid being squashed, but he had managed to drain some energy. A Leaf Blade slashed through a thrown rock, but a half-lunge for the vambrace met a Protect, bouncing him away and forcing an awkward three point landing as energy vanished.

Sceptile jumped over the Earthquake that followed, aggron unable to make use of the airborne Pokémon. Max's started took a moment to reassess the situation before relighting his blades: double Night Slash this time, of differing lengths.

A Bullet Seed to the eyes made sure aggron couldn't intercept him as he closed the gap, slashing across the plated chest before Danny's Mega could retaliate. A second slash – also with the right blade – met with a vambrace, and though Max thought he could hear the hiss of pain, it was an effective block, allowing for a Metal Claw to retaliate on the other arm.

Then, sceptile's left arm came up; the shorter, dagger-like, Night Slash locking with Steel-type energy. A vicious _twist_ forced the guard open, and sceptile got in, getting his blade in the aggron's right arm pit. An attempt to capture the blade underneath that failed, and with a face-to-chest Bullet Seed, sceptile made sure he could get out without issue, jumping over the swiping tail as he did so.

A Bulldoze caught him as he landed, throwing him up into the air, and aggron stomped onto the ground once before charging in; head glowing. The one-two combo caused sceptile to end up across the arena, but Max's starter got to his feet easily.

An ineffectual Bullet Seed met Iron Head, and sceptile made like the wind as he zipped out of the way of the half-a-tonne saurian, though aggron immediately chased after him, undoubtedly being told where to go by Danny.

"Blind spots," Max reminded sceptile as the green Pokémon barely avoided the tail that came in as he tried to slash at the rampaging aggron. "Lure him to this side."

Max's plan was good, but Danny stopped it by ordering his aggron to use another Earthquake; one that caused ominous rumbling underneath, even after the shaking had stopped. By now, the field looked more like a war zone from films than a regular arena: rock dust everywhere, causing visibility to drop; cracks and small holes littering the arena floor; heavy footsteps also obviously present.

The Earthquake did mean sceptile was able to move in to hand-to-hand combat again, going for a long Leaf Blade and a Night Slash dagger, settling in a rapid pattern of right-arm-slashes and left-arm parries. He constantly stayed moving, allowing him to avoid any attempts for Danny's Pokémon to involve the armoured tail as he simply moved along with aggron. The Steel-type was slow enough that the larger radius of the circle was not a problem to deal with, and Max saw at least six or seven slashes hit in the span of about thirty seconds, not counting the wrist-twisting that also happened.

Then a sneaky and small Bulldoze unbalanced sceptile's fleet-footedness just long enough for a Metal Claw to hit him in the chest, sending him sprawling onto the ground, as another Bulldoze followed up.

With a burst of speed and green energy, sceptile vaulted out of his prone position, combining Leaf Blade, Quick Attack, and Overgrow to completely outspeed any attempts at blocking and parrying the endless slashes.

And so aggron just stopped trying to do that, instead opting for heavy punches to hopefully catch and interrupt the sceptile. The first two missed, the inertia of every punch causing aggron to crouch over, unable to do anything to the Leaf Blades slashing away at his armour, but the third hit, the sudden resistance almost making sceptile fold before being sent flying back through a pillar, which crumbled into debris.

The Overgrow started flickering, and Max knew that this was all or nothing now. He had no idea how tired aggron was – he never had been able to figure that out even before Danny had been able to Mega Evolve the Steel-type – but with a bit of luck… "One last attempt. Go for the head!"

Sceptile pushed off, feet beating a quick pattern on cracked ground as Quick Attack started to work. Then, the grass-type went up, lunging for aggron's head with everything he could; both blades side-by-side, slashing down in unison.

They landed, straight onto aggron's nose, but sceptile ate a Metal Claw, sending him flying back, visibly knocked out from the punch.

And then a flash of light caught Max's attention. Aggron had returned to his normal form; the extra armour gone and his eyes closed in unconsciousness.

"A job well-done," Max whispered to his starter. "You deserve this rest."

It took Danny a bit to fully recover from the sudden breaking of the bond – that never really did get any easier, Max felt – and he held his pokéball until then, despite knowing that he was the one who had to select one first since sceptile had been ruled out before aggron had been.

The next battle would be Ghost versus Ghost, in the air, as doublade and froslass took to the skies. Danny's Pokémon wasted no time in summoning a hailstorm, which was done more to annoy him than to actually hinder doublade, Max knew. "Pressure. Be relentless and do _not_ give her time."

Time would give froslass the capability to unleash Blizzards, which would spell the end for doublade, as it had done in previous spars.

First, though, doublade had a surprise for Danny, as he used one Night Slash-lit sword to bat a Shadow Ball back; using the same reflection trick as sceptile had learned earlier that year. Froslass was not suspecting it, and it meant that the disruptive energy slammed into the Ice-type, giving Max's Pokémon the first hit and time to close the distance to start his attacks.

A sudden blast of ice forced doublade to stop for a moment, allowing froslass to start fading into the Hail, leaving Max without good eyes on the enemy.

Doublade was less affected, telling Max where Danny's Pokémon had gone, and keeping the Night Slash out in case of another Shadow Ball. None followed, the Ice-type instead going for an Icy Wind that her opponent powered through, allowing a Night Slash to hit.

A shrill cry pierced the air, but Max drew only a little comfort from it. The battle was far from over, and a glittering of Powder Snow in the sky proved that point, just chipping away at doublade bit by bit as froslass exploited her slightly better speed and Ability.

Doublade hurried on towards the froslass, slipping the sword back in the sheath as he tried to ram himself into her; probably looking to use Iron Head the moment it became apparent he was going to get a hit in.

More efficient movement did allow an Iron Head to hit, but a follow-up – after Max had tracked froslass to a spot near the ground – missed, causing doublade to land harshly. In that moment, froslass put on a burst of speed, vanishing into the Hail completely, and leaving Max fearful for his own Ghost-type. "Find her, now!"

Doublade ignored the first patch of cold Blizzard air forming to his left – even Max knew it was a fake. His second lead, however, was wrong as well, diving into a slightly more dense patch and coming out with nothing to show for it. He immediately turned his swords skywards, but it was too late.

Blizzard blanketed Max's half of the field, doublade being caught by the edge of the attack sent from above.

Screw trying to win this match-up. All he had left was to make sure that froslass would be as weak as possible for her next battle. Doublade was not going to win this; not when Danny still had the Confuse Ray option up his sleeve and doublade needed to get in close to actually try and knock his opponent out. "Full offence."

The sudden onslaught of two Night Slashes definitely caught froslass off guard, and she took at least three hits before she was able to use that same ice blast as before to create just enough room to move away; Max now recognising the move as the one swinub liked to use as well. She attempted an Ice Beam the moment she thought she had put enough distance between the two of them, but an Iron Head allowed doublade to negate the attack for just a bit longer than she expected, causing both of them to crash into the ground.

But the Ice-type was up faster, and with a twirl of hail, she vanished, and Max knew what that meant. Another Blizzard was coming, and neither he nor doublade had any idea where it was coming from.

In the end, both of them were completely wrong. Doublade's instincts – which Max trusted a lot more than his own eyes – were wrong, and Max's guess that froslass would try to do another attack from up on high – because it would allow froslass to also freeze the other half of the arena – was also wrong. Instead, the attack formed from essentially the referee's position, blasting straight down the middle of the arena, catching doublade and knocking him out cold. Pun intended.

He could live with this lead for Danny. it was surmountable, especially with manectric still available. He needed to let the field thaw a bit first though.

Or perhaps there was another way.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Danny wasn't surprised to see the espurr come out again. He was fairly sure he knew what Max had left. One was manectric, and boy did he regret not taking swampert after seeing sceptile be the one to take down aggron. The other, he was less sure about, but it was either xatu or shelgon, and neither was good against froslass. Espurr was better than most, because Light Screen did a lot to minimise the constant barrage of ice and because the arena was rife with debris to use.

He kept his second ever Pokémon in, though. Espurr had already fought once, having to expend a good bit of power to see klefki off, and Shadow Ball had that advantage of being really good against the small Pokémon. The more he could weaken Max's remaining Pokémon before the inevitable manectric, the better Danny's chances were.

Froslass started by re-summoning the hail, while Danny saw the tell-tale shimmer of Light Screen appear on the other side of the arena, indicating where espurr was even if he hadn't been able to see the grey standing out against white and brown ahead of him.

Interestingly, Max's Pokémon had decided to stay firmly on the icy side of the field, allowing the Light Screen to push up against the other shields that kept everyone safe. "Espurr's not going to move from there. Start weakening the Light Screen, ice only."

The Ice Beam formed, and the Light Screen flared as it filtered the energy. Danny saw a small mound of ice form in the distance, but it hadn't hit espurr.

Max's Pokémon sent out an improvised Stone Edge, just using the demolished rocky battlefield to her advantage, but some simple movement allowed froslass to avoid it; her half-hidden form simply moving to the side to avoid the barrage.

Another Ice Beam drained the Light Screen further, and Danny thought it would break down after one more attack. "Move close, then Shadow Ball."

Froslass flew forwards, giving away her position as she charged three Shadow Balls in rapid succession.

And all of them were blocked by a huge wave of white being thrown froslass's way; the energy smothered by the sheer amount of snow and ice espurr sent out. It forced froslass to use Protect, weathering the attack without being knocked to the ground.

But Danny saw something hover behind froslass's shield, though he couldn't tell what exactly. "Watch out!"

The moment the Protect fell, razor-sharp needles of debris, hidden in the snow and held back when espurr saw the Protect come out, rained down on froslass.

She staggered in mid-air, and with a jolt, Danny realised that the Light Screen had fallen, allowing espurr to unleash full psionic potential without the barrier getting in the way. A Confusion fell over froslass, forcing an instinctive release of Ghost-type energy to purge the voices in her head, but that just left her open to the Disarming Voice that espurr had somehow chained onto the end of the attack.

The Fairy-type attack knocked froslass around, though she recovered fairly easily. Her hover was wobbly, though, suggesting that she hadn't recovered fully yet. "Icy Wind!"

Psybeam pierced through the Icy Wind, and with a start, Danny realised that espurr had aimed straight at froslass despite her slight movement and the hail. He could understand how doublade had followed – he probably knew to detect it through some weird Ghostly powers, but espurr? When had Max figured that out?

Froslass was trying to get some semblance of control of the match back, but espurr wasn't letting her, relentlessly sending forth alternating barrages of debris, and Psybeams.

"Protect, blast, then move," Danny ordered as he saw another Psybeam head in. The Protect wasn't too strong, but it held, and then a quick blast of ice obliterated most of the incoming rocks, finally allowing her a bit of rest. She zoomed away to Danny's half, eager to get out of range for a little while.

She looked terrible; and Danny didn't think she could stand up to too much more. Some of the cuts that she had were deep enough that they would have bled on non-Ghosts. "Try to get espurr as well, okay?"

Froslass nodded before flying up, starting to gather all the hail that was still floating around. It painted a target on her, but she was far enough away that the Psybeams were practically half-strength and definitely off-target by the time they got up to her height, while debris just faltered in the face of the gathering storm.

Light glinted off of a protective barrier as espurr threw up a Light Screen, immediately looking to strengthen it in response to the Blizzard forming overhead.

White churned, darkened, and then was launched at the shining obstacle, espurr invisible behind her Light Screen. It flared as the Blizzard hit, bending, but not breaking, but then, Danny noticed a spray of debris flying upwards at froslass. He yelled for her to move, but he was too late, as he saw the attack hit, just before a flash of light announced the Light Screen breaking.

But when he looked over there, he saw the espurr standing in front of the Light Screen barrier instead of behind it; unharmed.

He didn't need to listen to the announcer to figure out what had happened. Between the Blizzard and the glare, froslass had lost vision of espurr, and Max's Pokémon had used that to sneak through the barrier after making it strong enough to resist a Blizzard for long enough to keep up the ruse. It was probably very draining for the espurr, but without getting a closer look, Danny couldn't tell.

Drapion would cause Max to send out manectric, granting espurr another reprieve. Diggersby was reserve for manectric. That left just dusclops.

The third Ghost-type of the battle appeared on cracked but unfrozen ground, and apart from creating half a dozen balls of ghostly flame, dusclops did nothing as she waited for espurr to launch an attack. The Will-O-Wisp orbs weren't offensive either, Danny knew – they were to dissuade espurr from coming in too close.

That had been necessary after espurr had sent her flying with the uncontrolled bursts. They wouldn't knock dusclops out by any stretch, but Danny knew Max. His best friend would be looking to maximise espurr's impact on the battle, and that meant he would tell her to not hold back.

Case in point, the near-avalanche of rocks that espurr sent forth, coating the air brown and white. Dusclops took the first wave, knowing that espurr usually held back to bait the protect, and a curtain of Night Shade obliterated most of the second round. Whatever remained – less than Danny had thought espurr would have left – was Protected against, and a Will-O-Wisp pair intercepted the Psybeam that the Psychic-type tried to sneak in just after the shield fell.

Night Shade stopped another attack, probably Confusion if Danny remembered it right, and then espurr went back to launching rocks at dusclops.

That was fine. Pure contests of power was what dusclops was best against anyway.

There was a moment where Danny wanted to countermand dusclops, but he soon saw that his Pokémon had read espurr better, and in using Protect to block the second wave of rocks, she saved some strength for what was coming up.

A few more attacks followed, but between Will-O-Wisp, Night Shade, and another Protect, dusclops simply outlasted the espurr, quickly driving her to exhaustion. The small Psychic-type wasn't even able to deflect Shadow Ball with ears raised, and that meant it was over.

Max's next Pokémon came out in a flash, and one more followed as the Mega Evolution took place. Danny barely paid attention to it. Instead, he returned dusclops, sending out diggersby now that Max was virtually locked into the manectric. Sure, he could return, but that'd remove the Mega Evolution – there had been testing on that end with Gary – and multiple Mega Evolutions in quick succession drained energy from both human and Pokémon.

It wasn't like Mean Look or anything, but it definitely was helpful. Of course, Max had done the same to aggron earlier, so Danny was just returning the favour.

"You know what to do," Danny told his first Kalos Pokémon, who gave a quick salute with the right ear, as best he could.

Danny took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as diggersby immediately used a Bulldoze to hinder the manectric that was just speeding towards him in a Quick Attack. She still jumped over it, but the timing made her have to land not too far from diggersby, who was waiting for her with a Mud Bomb that splashed all over her side.

Manectric snapped at diggersby with flame in her mouth, but Danny's Pokémon made sure he was out of range of the Fire Fang. A retaliation with a Doubleslap also led to nothing, but any follow-up attempts by diggersby to create distance, which would allow him to create Mud Shots or Mud Bombs, were denied by a relentlessly pressing Electric-type, snapping with mouth ablaze and occasionally using Quick Attack to ram herself into Danny's Pokémon.

The only time the Digging Pokémon actually had enough time to unleash mud was after a successful Protect, but those were predictable, and manectric moved away every single time. Slamming into a shield at full speed didn't even faze her.

"Bulldoze, send her up into the air," Danny called out, and diggersby replied by using Protect to shield from the Fire Fang. Manectric recoiled, giving just enough time to unleash the Bulldoze. A bit of careful manipulation of diggersby's ears meant that there was an extra push along with the wave of earth, and up manectric went, allowing for a perfect Mud Bomb.

And then the mud was incinerated in mid-air, and diggersby had to roll to barely avoid a Flamethrower; fire flickering across the very spot that the grey and brown Pokémon had occupied a moment before. The attack stunned Danny for a second, wondering when they had gotten _that_ trick down.

Luckily, diggersby was very capable of keeping himself in the fight, and when Danny looked back, he had managed to create some distance between the two of them to allow for a Mud Bomb to get through. The larger blob didn't reach manectric in one piece, as she lanced it with a careful spear of electricity, showering her in dirt, but also scattering part of the attack.

But Danny still thought manectric looked a lot less powerful now that she couldn't draw on those immense reserves of electricity for offence, and diggersby was fast enough that he could actually land hits every once in a while. "Keep it up, you're doing great."

Another Quick Attack – with a movement pattern Danny didn't recognise off the top of his head – followed, and diggersby tried to stop it with a Bulldoze. Manectric jumped over the Ground-type attack at the last possible second, though, and with a triumphant look, she pounced, feet digging into diggersby.

A bit of fur stuck to her foot as she jumped off, immediately putting distance between her and diggersby before Danny's Pokémon could use his ears, but Danny thought his Pokémon wouldn't have been able to anyway. The Ground-type had to take a moment to take a breather, and when Danny looked up to see a close-up of diggersby's lower body, he saw why.

The claws on manectric's feet, which were larger than normal, were also sharper than normal, and they'd left a bloody scratch on a hip. Then, the camera tinted green with orange as a Protect blocked a Flamethrower, and Danny saw the flame curve around for a moment.

And a razor-thin lance of electricity made its way over to diggersby. He blocked it with an ear, but the fact that it was such a thin tendril told Danny everything he needed to know. Diggersby's skin was what granted the immunity to electricity. Getting electricity directly into the wound, however, would probably bypass those defences entirely. They had proof of that from months back.

It was a difficult target to hit, but manectric could do it. It forced diggersby to keep an eye out for the electricity, which would make defending harder.

And Max and manectric both knew that, as another assault started, mixing Quick Attack, Flamethrower, Fire Fang, and the occasional scalpel-like needle of electricity into a yellow and blue blur of power. Diggersby did all he could to defend, between Protects, defensive Mud Bomb screens, Bulldozes, and Doubleslaps, but it was only a matter of time before he would falter as manectric played the game she knew best: to force opponents into making errors when all other options ran out.

He had to try. There was no other way. "Next time she's close, get her."

Diggersby jumped over the Fire Fang when manectric came in, seconds after the order, but the electric-type swivelled on her paws, causing diggersby to miss and land on the ground; a prime target for another Fire Fang. She bit down on one of the ears, uncaring of the mud that was present, and the yelp of pain and the freeze was enough for her to move away slightly.

Then a Flamethrower got the taste of mud out of her mouth, and diggersby was unable to block or dodge in time. He staggered back after the fire had passed, smoking and smouldering in several places, but a Mud Shot tried to hit manectric anyway. She took it in order to deliver a Quick Attack that sent diggersby skidding back across the ground, and one ear went to the ground to support him.

And quick as lightning, a needle of electricity broke through the defences, stunning diggersby for just long enough. It allowed for another Quick Attack to hit, and this time, he wasn't able to mitigate the attack by changing his stance at the last moment.

Danny called for a desperate Mud Bomb, but it wasn't to be as manectric jinked right before stopping and unleashing a Flamethrower from range instead of the expected Quick Attack. The Protect blocked it, but then the Quick Attack did land.

A type _immunity_ advantage, and still Danny had lost handily. He shook his head as he returned diggersby. He really wished he'd taken swampert now, though that would probably just have led to an endless procession of jumping on top of heads.

If he was going to lose, though… Mega manectric was a good one to lose against. She was a force of nature, and Danny did not have the Pokémon to deal with her effectively.

Danny's other Ghost-type came out for her second stint; creating another set of Will-O-Wisp flames before manectric resumed her assault on Danny's Pokémon with a Thunderbolt. A Night Shade met it, and Danny saw dusclops putting more power into it than she had done in the past to match the extra output manectric had.

They'd done this song and dance before, loads of times in fact. Thunderbolts were usually met with Night Shades, Sparks and Fire Fangs met Shadow Balls to scare her off, and Protect worked against Discharge's uncontrolled lightning.

But there were two attacks that manectric hadn't ever used on dusclops, and the first one made an appearance just now, judging by the opening mouth. "Shadow Ball!" Danny ordered as a Flamethrower shot towards the dusclops.

And for some reason, the Shadow Ball pierced through the Flamethrower, parting it with ease and hitting manectric on her nose as she didn't react in time. Danny definitely hadn't expected that, but it didn't solve his problems any. That was the last Flamethrower he was going to see this fight, and there were other attacks left.

He saw manectric run in with sparks gathering, dancing all over her fur, weaving around a second Shadow Ball that was meant for her to do just that. It missed by inches, exploding further back, but the Discharge forced a Protect afterwards, and it was only then that Danny noticed that the attack was a lot less powerful than it had previously been.

A huge Thunder blasted dusclops straight off her feet a moment later, alerting Danny to the stupidity of what he had done. Using Protect like that was an old trick. Of course they would know that, and so manectric tricked him into falling into a familiar pattern before ruthlessly exploiting it. "Don't let her get close at all," Danny said as dusclops got up, the half-dozen orbs in the air soaring down to annoy manectric, who was forced to just block with a quick Thunderbolt. "Protect the Thunder and counter as much as you can."

A trio of Shadow Balls formed, two soaring outward while the third went straight at manectric, who moved into an evasive pattern. It allowed her to avoid one of them, but not the other two, and a quick Night Shade forced her back for a bit more, even if it hit only dirt and not anything else.

Tell-tale signs of impending Thunder appeared, and dusclops braced herself; the Protect impeccably timed.

One second into the attack, Danny saw that this was different. Manectric wasn't stopping the attack, instead pumping more and more electricity into it for some strange reason. Why would she do that? Unless…

Unless Max felt she could overpower the shield.

Any other time, Danny would have scoffed. Dusclops had the strongest Protect out of any of his Pokémon, and manectric was in for her second battle already. But this was different: manectric had used very little electricity up until now, and her reserves were terrifyingly large. They had to be for having to go up in a running battle against yveltal that lasted the better part of half an hour before clefairy could use Healing Wish.

She could basically expend all the energy she'd normally expend on one Pokémon in this one attack and still be in a normal place for her.

The yellow turned blinding in intensity as the green shield started visibly straining, tendrils of electricity arcing around it and impacting the ground, leaving scorch marks wherever they hit. Danny could almost hear the sizzling of the electricity; the tortured stretching of the Protect, and the sound of shattering energy.

That last didn't happen, somehow, as manectric broke off under her own command, instead slipping into a Quick Attack with Spark that did get through. Dusclops just hadn't been able to respond in time, revealing just who had won that exchange of power, even after taking the advantage that the defender had – that she could defend with less energy than manectric needed to attack with – into account. She had slumped while manectric had moved in, and it had cost her again.

Dusclops wouldn't be dusclops if she was out just yet though, and a Night Shade proved exactly why that was. Thunderbolt met it, causing a cloud that the Ghost-type eagerly used to launch another two Shadow Balls into there; one of them hitting manectric as she ran through the cloud to get vision again. A quick whirl of Will-O-Wisp forced a block, leaving her open for a Night Shade that missed by inches as the agile Pokémon went right.

Dusclops tried to fend off a Spark with a Fire Punch, but ended up missing when manectric jumped over the Ghost at the last second, causing her to overbalance and nearly fall down as manectric blindly sent an uncontrolled burst of electricity backwards. It slammed into dusclops, forcing her down onto the ground as yellow crackles ran over her purple body. "Fight through it!" Danny said, feeling like he was close to whining. "Night Shade around you!"

Ghost-type energy formed a small dome around dusclops, but manectric wasn't going in close as Danny had expected. Instead, she launched a Thunderbolt, and the electricity mixed with the energy to create an explosion that sent dusclops flying; a purple glow suffusing her as she did so.

He saw dusclops go down, but at the same time, he heard the roar of the audience, and yelling of the announcer, just before a red wave of shattering energy passed through the arena. "What the… _Destiny Bond?"_ he said, incredulously.

He had to be told to return dusclops in order to be roused from his stunned state. Max was even slower than that. Only one Pokémon remained for both of them, and where earlier Danny had been certain Max would probably take it on the back of manectric, now he felt good about his chances if Max's last Pokémon was indeed the xatu.

And if not… Drapion could sneak wins off of everyone with his poison, and it was time to see if he could do that at the highest level Danny had ever battled at.

 **~~§~~§~~**

One last Pokémon fight to decide it all. Serena felt the excitement around the luxury box; a feeling that she shared. It had been a great battle to watch, but only one Pokémon remained for both of them, thanks to the surprise Destiny Bond. "That's new," she told the others.

"That's the second time manectric was just cut down like that. Tough luck," Keith said loudly as they waited for Max to shake off the effects of the bond just breaking suddenly. "Do you think Danny has a chance now?"

"I think so," Clemont replied. "Manectric looked like it could deal with everything Danny had, but that Destiny Bond completely threw it around. Max has to recover from that disappointment."

Serena knew what was coming out, though, and she knew there was no chance for Max to not recover. The Pokémon he had left just didn't work that way. "It's shelgon and drapion," she shared, moments before both Trainers sent their last Pokémon out. "I think Max wins this."

"How long has the shelgon been one?" Oscar wondered. "I didn't tell him this yesterday, but he is terribly young to tame a Dragon."

"They found an Egg," Keith answered while the announcer hyped up this last battle, mentioning that it all came down to this one fight as if they had planned it from the beginning. "Somewhere in the north of Hoenn, last summer. Bagon evolved… Some time between Geosenge and now."

"Couple days before the Master Class," Serena filled in the gap for Keith.

"Shelgon is very different from what he has shown so far," Drasna said as the battle got underway; Poison Sting meeting Dragon Pulse. The green attack won out. "But the bond of a Dragon raised from birth is powerful. This'll be a fitting end to the battle, no matter who wins."

Drapion vanished, digging underground, but resurfacing a moment later as he just avoided being caught in a local rock slide. "It appears the ground is too unstable to dig through!" the announcer told the audience. "Drapion will not like being denied that safety, folks!"

Shelgon flung another Dragon Pulse across the arena, impacting on drapion, but seemingly not doing too much otherwise. Danny's Pokémon skittered across the uneven ground, Serena catching Danny's order for a Poison Fang.

But Max knew what Danny had in store. "Don't let it get close!" he yelled; his voice soundinglike it should be breaking, but didn't.

His Pokémon forced the drapion to stop with a spray of Embers, causing the Poison-type to curl in on himself. Flamethrower forced a Protect, and Dragon Pulse missed narrowly before drapion decided to launch a counter from range, going for a barrage of Pin Missiles.

The battle continued along those lines, with drapion unable to get close enough to Max's Pokémon to actually inflict poison. All Poison Stings were blocked in some way shape, or form, and every attempt at getting closer was stymied by either an attack, or by shelgon using Dragon Rush as an escape; often smashing through rocks in the process and being completely uncaring about that.

"He has a good bond with the shelgon," Drasna suddenly stated as a set of Pin Missiles got through shelgon's defences. The Poison Stings that followed up were blocked through a Protect, though. "He balances it well, too."

"What do you mean?" Jane spoke up.

"Dragons are emotional Pokémon, heavily invested in their battles and the search to become stronger Pokémon," Oscar said, surprising Serena. Then she remembered he had a noivern. "Through means that aren't really understood, they are able to create a kind of emotional… I suppose resonance is as good a word as any. This resonance, this bond, often affects both the Pokémon and the Trainer."

Underneath them, Max proved the point with a hoarse scream for a Dragon Rush. "Dragons adore fighting, but improperly trained or properly provoked, they are prone to bloodlust," Drasna continued. "This, naturally, is reflected onto the Trainer, but while that extreme is bad… There is a state of mind before that where the sheer force of _life_ itself tugs at you."

"I've never had that," Serena said, frowning. "And I have an altaria."

"But have you been in battles at the tip of your skill level with it?" Drasna retorted softly, smiling when Serena couldn't say that she had. "Once you have, you will notice."

"But what does it do?" Jane asked. "I mean… I've got a noibat, but I've never felt anything like it either."

Down on the field, Serena saw Max put another nail in drapion's coffin by having a Dragon Rush ram straight into the Poison-type's head. "Oh, that must have hurt," the announcer said needlessly. "This is looking good for the younger of the two."

"It is a state in which the emotions of battle: thrill; excitement; those kinds, are amplified, without dipping into the bloodlust," Drasna said. "The hallmark of one who has trained his Dragon well is one whose bond reaches to the very tipping point where one wrong thought can send you and the Pokémon into bloodlust; yet they do not."

"And Max is there?" Keith wondered.

"Oh, goodness me, no. He is a ways off, but for someone his age, this is still a good bond, and he is aware of the problems. Probably was on the wrong end of it at some point."

Serena would have to ask Max about that. If that had happened, it hadn't been while she was around.

Down on the field, it looked and sounded like Danny was becoming desperate to break through shelgon's defences, but a Flamethrower threatened to barbecue the Poison-type; only a Protect allowing the battered drapion to hold the line. "Pin Missile!"

"Get him!" Max yelled almost simultaneously, and shelgon just stood and tanked the Pin Missile as he spat out a ferocious Dragon Pulse. Drapion was unable to move away in time; getting hit in the foot for his trouble, being sent sprawling onto the ground.

Another yell made the shelgon Dragon Rush in, and no Protect or anything else was capable of blocking the attack. Drapion flew off, landing close to Danny, and despite trying to get up, and despite Danny's cries for drapion to do so… He couldn't.

The moment that the green flag – Max's flag – went up, the younger teenager jumped onto the field, uncaring of the still-frozen patches of soil; the uneven footing; the various scars that their Pokémon had inflicted. All he had eyes for was his shelgon.

Max _always_ claimed to not have any favourite Pokémon, but Serena knew that was a lie, and one she and Danny let him get away with. Sceptile, manectric, and shelgon were easily his top three, and they had been the backbone of his victory today.

The sound technicians did something, because suddenly, the sound level of the applause dropped. A moment later, as Trainer embraced his Dragon-type as best he could, she heard the reason why. "Thank you," Max said in a hoarse whisper, as if his voice was on the edge of giving out. "Thank you so much."

Of course, after all the shouting he'd done as he gave in to that Dragon's bond thing Drasna had mentioned probably did do a number on your throat.

"Now that's a thing you don't see every day," the Elite Four member suddenly commented. "To the right."

Danny was slowly walking up to Max after probably returning his drapion. A close-up of his face suddenly appeared on the big screens, showing a surprisingly not-sad fourth place finisher. Serena wasn't sure if she could call it happy, but most people who lost showed more emotion than that. Even Danny himself, the day before, had been more obviously sad once you saw through the mask. Now, however, she couldn't see a single sign of anything like that.

As well as she knew Danny, that probably meant there wasn't any on the surface.

Max noticed his best friend – of course he did – at about fifteen feet, and he quickly rose, stepping around the shelgon, looking more than a bit surprised.

Danny stopped moving as Max returned shelgon. For a long moment, the two friends looked at each other, Max now looking like he was trying to figure out why Danny was there. Serena saw him about to speak, but then, he closed his mouth at something Danny did off-screen, the camera being just too late.

And then Danny started clapping.

And the entire stadium, which had fallen silent as the loser of the match had walked up, followed his lead.

 **~~§~~§~~**

The closing ceremony already started out different from what Hoenn had. There would only be three Trainers down in the arena: Max, Oscar, and Paul, who would be led onto the field at the right time. The rest, Danny himself included, were occupying most of a section right on top of the referee's box. Normally, it was the area for photographers and reporters – Danny remembered seeing them sitting there – but those had been allowed onto the pitch while the Trainers filed in here from all around the stadium.

Paul had won about twenty minutes before, decisively dealing with everything in his no-nonsense fashion. A drapion with Stone Edge had done a lot of work on the pinsir before a froslass of Paul's own finished the Bug-type Mega Pokémon off. It had been a huge surprise to the entire stadium when that happened, including Max, but it had been the point at which the winner was decided.

Despite winning a tournament, however, the Sinnoh teen was still his usual self, barely smiling at all even directly after his victory. It was something Danny didn't understand at all. Wasn't winning the tournament everything he came here to do?

A change in the lights, and Keith's elbow hitting Danny's own, was the signal that the ceremony was about to start.

The darkness wasn't complete enough for Danny to miss someone walking onto the field, though he couldn't see who exactly. A moment later, slow illumination revealed him to be the President of Kalos, who had slipped a dark-green band on in the past quarter of an hour. He walked up to something that looked like a lectern with a microphone attached, and started speaking.

"Another six months gone, another tournament over. Anyone casually tuning in from outside the region may be forgiven in thinking it was just that: one tournament of many we have here; short but resplendent. Yet those of you who have been here… You know _better,"_ the man emphasised smoothly. "This time, Kalos is free from threat, and those who sought to undermine its beauty will find that from the ground they trampled, new life will grow, for we are resilient and nurturing alike."

"Of course, for all of you who are not from Kalos, the same goes," he added, deadpan, causing rippling laughter across the stadium. A short cough snapped everyone's attention back, impressing Danny. "In a world like ours, to be divided is to invite chaos and mayhem. This is why, starting in August of next year, there will be an Elite Tournament, featuring eight Trainers from Lumiose Conferences, and eight from Prudan's equivalent, to foster friendship and better bonds with our neighbours."

More applause, and Danny wondered if that had been inspired by the Champion's League, just for a moment. Then he remembered Lance's lie at the ceremony, which confirmed it for him.

"But enough of the boring announcements, let us proceed to the part that most of you are here for: the award ceremony, followed by the closing ceremony." The President shuffled a sheet around for some reason. Danny hadn't noticed him looking down at all before. "128 participants from ten different regions started, just over a week ago, and just half an hour ago, we found our champion. Sadly for those who bet on it beforehand – and I know the odds were decent because I did so myself – he is not Kalosian. Again."

Was he a politician or a comedian? Danny knew it was the former, but the man was _good_ at his punchlines. "Nor is any other on the podium. The third place goes to someone from far-away Hoenn. He is the youngest to be on the podium in decades: his fourteenth birthday months off still. He dazzled the audience with an independent style, and keen understanding of how to battle. Please, join me in welcoming..."

And a fireworks display overhead revealed Max's name. The teen walked onto the field, somehow having changed into a nice shirt with tie-and-award. Probably xatu had done some quick Teleporting – both of them had exchanged Pokémon after the battle.

The President continued, introducing Oscar – "A free-flying veteran Trainer, relentless in using mobility." – and Paul – "Power to overwhelm the overwhelming power of Mega Evolution." – in turn. Each of them received as much applause as Max had, and justifiably so. They had reached to the finals, after all, and Danny saw Max clap enthusiastically from his place on the lowest step of the podium.

Diantha walked up then, flanked by her gardevoir, virtually shining in a dress of white and reflections, and one by one, she hung a simple medal around each Trainer's neck. Max barely had to bow his head, while Paul and the even taller Oscar both had to lower their heads quite a lot, to Danny's amusement.

The winner's trophy gently flew towards them after Paul had received his medal; the President taking it out of gardevoir's invisible grip. With a firm handshake and smiles on two faces, he handed it to Paul.

"Your Lumiose Conference champion!"

 **~~§~~§~~**

The first thing Max saw when he exited the central Pokémon Center, around the corner from Magenta Plaza and Prism Tower, was a familiar figure leaning against a lamppost. Clemont's arms were folded, but he was wearing a thinner coat than last December, and denim jeans instead of his overall. "You look ready to leave," he observed, noticing the separate bags instead of a large pack. "What's it like, going back home like this?"

"C'mon Clemont. You've been to our region before," Danny remarked, stepping up beside Max. "You were a Trainer like us, too. You know how it works when you go back home."

"I don't, actually. I never left Kalos on my journey," the Gym Leader corrected gently. "I thought about it, but… I thought I'd miss home too much to be away that long. So I stayed, and, well..." The gesture towards Prism Tower said more than a thousand words. "I hear you're leaving too, Serena?"

The slightly taller girl hummed agreement. "Not right now. I'm basically grounded for two weeks once these two are on the plane," she said, tapping Max on his shoulder. "It'll be good to spend time with my mother again, though… She's cleared her entire schedule for the next week."

"Family is important," Clemont agreed, and for a moment, Max felt like he was missing something… somewhere. "So… Max, Danny? Provided you don't get grounded without xatu for the next year," he added with a nod to the Psychic-type.

"Johto," Danny answered. "Probably go there around the start of December, head back home for Yule, and then back to Johto. Don't think I could stay home for a month and a half, being honest with ya."

Clemont pushed himself off of the lamppost. "I never had that wanderlust," he said wistfully. "Maybe I missed out, but _c'est la vie."_ He closed the distance, one arm stretching out in a silent request as he did so. Max accepted it, returning a one-armed hug. "Don't be a stranger, okay?" he asked after hugging Danny similarly. "And if you're ever in Kalos, just call or drop by or something. The Gym and our house are always open for you."

"Thanks. I think I can wrangle the same if I'm home and you're in Hoenn," Max said in return, getting a smile from the blond-haired teen. "Oh, and tell Bonnie that Hoenn has lots of cute Pokémon, if she wants to come over."

Four teenagers laughed. "I'll do that," Clemont said, smiling despite a slight hitch in his voice. "Anyway… As they say… _Bon voyage_."

The Gym Leader struck a right, off towards his Tower, and Max excused the older teen his abrupt exit. Danny seemed to have noticed as well, though Serena apparently hadn't. A quick hand and a shake stopped any call-outs.

Xatu took them to the airport with little issue; the biggest problem coming when a little boy wandered into suddenly-there luggage, leading to a minor sniffle as his father picked him up. The adult didn't seem to blame them, though, and neither did he seem to recognise them either, thankfully.

It was all too soon that they reached the point that Serena would have to stay behind at. "Well… This is it," Danny said as Max cast a look at the security up ahead. There was a small queue due to a couple of the turnstiles being closed for whatever reason. "It's going to be _weird_ not having you around, Serena."

"I know," Serena said, and she didn't even try to hide the emotion in her voice. "You did so much for me this past year. I'm sure you must've been tired of my stupid questions by the end of the first week, but… You never let it show. It was..." She swallowed heavily. "It was the best year of my life. _Thank you."_

Max wasn't sure who initiated the hug, but it took about a minute for it to end. Serena didn't even try to hide her tears, and there was a hot prickle behind Max's own eyes. He tried to surreptitiously get it to go away, but Danny caught him with a glint in his own eyes.

"One question..." Serena said after the boys had waited for her to recover enough. "Did you ever think about… about leaving me? Because I was such a beginner and slowing you down?"

"Never," Max and Danny said at the same time. "Jinx. Anyway," Max continued, before having to pause due to a hiccup-giggle from Serena's end. "I was in that situation as well, remember? Knowing not a lot that was actually useful, not even having a Pokémon of my own, and always slowing the others down because I was younger and tired more easily. And before you say I was only ten, I was also an obnoxious brat at that age. Shut it, you."

"But..."

" _No_."

"Spoilsport."

Max stuck his tongue out at Danny. "But Ash and Brock didn't get rid of me, even when I was at my worst with teasing my sister, or being a book-smart kid. They aren't that kind of person, and I don't want to be that either."

"Friends are friends," Danny said nonchalantly. "So what if you didn't know a lot? Max dropped a ton of knowledge on me after we started." Left unsaid were the days Max had been moving around in an unbelieving daze, and he quickly shoved those out of his memory. Now was not the time to dwell on any of that. "Who knows. Maybe you'll meet someone starting out yourself. Help them as we helped you."

"Xerneas knows I'll be calling you for help, then!"

That set the trio off; with merry and heartfelt laughter this time, and it took another minute before speaking was a real option. "We aren't that far away. Could probably hop over if we're in the right area," Danny told her. "A little bit of Max feeding xatu the memories of a place and presto, instant way of getting around in Kanto."

"Could even meet up at the Indigo Plateau in February," Max added. "Linda will be participating there… Oh, _shut up_ , you."

The outburst was fake enough to make Danny and Serena both laugh. Max figured it wouldn't derail Danny's teasing one bit, but he had a reputation to uphold, and pushing back against Danny's idea that he _liked_ Linda was part of that.

"Maybe we should," Serena agreed softly, before taking a careful step back. "Thanks for giving and teaching me so much over the past year, and… Until the next time we meet?"

"Definitely," Danny told her firmly, Max nodding beside him.

The Kalosian teenager walked away, and both Hoenn-bound teens turned around, seeing that the queue had disappeared despite no extra open turnstiles. They exchanged no words as they walked forwards, through security, and into the first part of the trip back home.

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Are you_ kidding? _In what world are you living that you don't think the Maple boy is deserving of at least consideration towards the Ace-tier Weakly occupied tournament, sure, but watch the ******* matches and come back here. And he's thir-*******-teen. He's going to be challenging for Champion status before he's an adult._

– Pokébet Lumiose Conference forum thread

* * *

 **Author's** **Note:** And that is the end of Kalos. Might return there at some point, but not any time soon, both in-story and out-of-story. This region is done, and all that's left for now is one epilogue-esque chapter that'll be out next week.

Schedule slip was courtesy of real life being a repeated douche and this chapter clocking in at something batshit like last chapter.


	42. Sweet Hoenn

****Disclaimer:**** Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

* * *

 **Chapter 42: Sweet Hoenn**

The group of people waiting for the flight from Kalos was a fair bit larger than the one that had seen Max and Danny off, some ten and a half months ago, Norman mused as they waited for the boys to make their way through customs. Then, it had been the parents, one uncle, and a sister. Now, they'd added Keith and Jane, who had arrived two days before; an older teenager May swore wasn't her boyfriend, though Norman had doubts; and Caroline's sister with husband and son, who were spending a weekend in Mauville with friends.

The latter was currently asking about a million questions of Keith, if he heard it correctly. Evan would turn twelve in a month and a half, and from the sound of it, he was looking to be as prepared as he could be.

There were also a few photographers, not even trying to hide their presence, but also looking quite casual, joking between the few of them. Maxim had walked over to them, cutting some kind of deal that probably involved pictures having to be taken after the reunion in exchange for not taking any before that, or something along those lines.

"Did it take as long for you?" May asked Jane suddenly, jolting Norman out of his musing. "The customs part, I mean."

The introverted teenager shook her head, hair swaying. "Was smooth for us, but we arrived early. Maybe that's not helping?"

The fact that it was some time after lunch on a Saturday probably didn't help, Norman agreed in his head as he saw text jump on the monitor showing inbound flights. They'd been waiting here for half an hour, and that had already been over half an hour after the plane had landed just ahead of schedule.

Then, a door slid open, and all assorted faces turned towards the now-open entrance. People started walking out, and after half a minute of slow exiting, they finally saw the ones they were waiting for.

And Norman was struck for a moment at what they looked like.

It wasn't like he hadn't seen them recently. He'd seen them battle each other a few days before, and they'd called many times. He knew what his son looked like, and he knew what Danny looked like because the two were inseparable. But somehow, seeing them in person… They were teenagers, no question about it. Max didn't have the height of one – Danny was probably close to half a foot taller – but the way they moved, their expressions…

He'd ask when his son had grown up so, but he knew the answer. In more ways than one.

"Sorry," Max said as he walked up, pulling two suitcases behind him. "There was some kind of problem with the scanner back at customs and someone's luggage. Took a few minutes to sort that out and they didn't let us go before that."

Before anyone could reply to that, the youngest of their number spoke up. "You're bloody short!" Evan exclaimed, earning a half-hearted mutter about language from his mother. "Didn't eat your vegetables or something?"

"All his energy went to using his head," Danny said, placing the packs down near the beheeyem that Gregory had borrowed off of one of his actor friends. "Or it's just genetics, but I really prefer my theory."

"You were fairly late on the growth spurt as well, Norman," Gregory offered as both boys fell into quick hugs with their mothers. "Closer to fifteen, I think."

"At least I'm still taller," May said as she circled around Norman, stopping Max with a hand on his shoulder. "You look surprisingly awake for someone who says he can't sleep in moving things."

"Apparently this was the exception," Danny said as he shook firm hands with Gregory. "He slept for like five hours from like eight Kalos time. I had about four, and then there was a patch of rough weather that woke us up." He shrugged. "Might want to go to bed early, but we'll be okay."

May moved out of the way, and Norman looked into his son's eyes. They were still familiar, still sparkling with life, and the handshake was enthusiastic – though he still missed his son's hugs - but at the same time, there was something hidden. Something… Different.

He had no idea what it was, but it probably had to do with the past year. _That_ was for tomorrow, though, Norman decided as the boys went around the rest of the group. He spotted Evan trying to do some kind of strange pre-teen ritual with Danny, the currently brown-haired teenager seemingly going along with it, and he also spotted Max and that green haired not-boyfriend of May's talk about something in hushed voices.

"You said something about a full-on battle," Danny said when he dropped by to shake hands. "Last year, after getting home from Ever Grande." A mischievous grin appeared, and Norman knew the question before it was asked. "That offer still open?"

He _was_ a Gym Leader. "Always, Danny," Norman said as his eyes dropped to the pendant he knew Danny was wearing. "I don't think I want to take both of you on the same day, though."

"Not enough Pokémon?"

Perhaps, though that depended entirely on what they brought. Slaking was good against both their teams. "I don't think my Gym's going to be in a state to do two in a row. Especially you and your love of Bulldoze and Earthquake."

"Maybe you could have it at the laboratory," the Professor broke in. "No hardwood floors to be broken there, and plenty of Ground-types to fix whatever aggron does." He put a hand on his nephew's shoulder. "I think the photographers want your pictures soon."

"I know," Danny said, switching from chipper to slightly exasperated, and he tapped Max on the shoulder as the shorter teenager walked by to go and greet Danny's own parents. "Company."

Max sighed wearily. "Let's get the ponyta show over with," he said before putting on a happier face, leaving Norman to wonder once again; this time about how exactly his son had adopted that jaded response to reporters. A shared look with Caroline confirmed that she was thinking the same thing, and a miniature gesture told him that she'd put it on the list of things to discuss.

At this rate, they'd need two nights, or to extend the first one. "Gregory, Maxim?" he said softly, tapping the latter on the shoulder. "How about you come over for dinner tomorrow. Gives us more time."

That was quickly agreed upon.

 **~~§~~§~~**

A dragonite landed on wood; and Lance dismounted with long practice. He saw only one where he was perhaps expecting two, but that didn't matter too much to him. Perhaps this was better, to provide a veneer of plausible deniability. "An out of the way place for us to meet. I had to double-check the coordinates you sent me."

"It is," Reginald agreed wearily, instantly causing Lance's instincts to scream at him. "Let us not mince words. I strongly suspect that we have sprung a leak, as it were."

The leader of the G-men froze in surprise, though he quickly broke his silence. "When you say suspect..."

"I mean just that," the Gym Leader replied, helplessly spreading his hands. "There is no _one_ convincing piece of evidence, but there are too many questions being asked in too specific places. Scattershot, referencing information that is too disparate for any one of mine to know. Except one." And it did not take a genius to figure out who Reginald meant. "I had Steven 'accidentally' EMP my Gym, and while I hope that was enough… I believe that my time as the G-men's Hoenn leader is coming to an end.

The question of how on earth he had been identified, Lance pushed aside. If Reginald knew that, it would have been mentioned.

It did mean complications to a deluge of plans, and not for the first time, Lance inwardly cursed the new Hoenn government for being so damn contrarian. They were trying to keep the world _safe_ , and with Hoenn in the state that it was, he did not need them to be hostile. Or really anything but accommodating and friendly. The previous government had been much easier to deal with. "What are you doing about it?"

The dark look, framed by heavy wind blowing blonde hair across the man's face, was almost enough of an answer. "Operation Midnight has been initiated. I have left instructions in all dead-drops."

Every operative in Hoenn, close to two dozen adults moving around independently in their own jobs, to be left in the dark and to act as they saw fit themselves. That was going to be a nightmare to handle. Lance was not even certain he knew all the relevant protocols. It was a Legendary-tier last resort; one of the absolute worst case scenarios that had been thought of internally. "And you?"

"Will stay in place for as long as I am able to in an attempt to ascertain the nature of their bugs. Perhaps attempt to distribute false information, though that carries the risk of them knowing that." Reginald paused, though Lance knew he was not done yet. "I have switched the registration location of many of my Pokémon to Oak's Ranch already, though I am uncertain he has noticed yet. He will likely want to talk to you as well, once you inform him."

The decision to send them to Kanto was not one that surprised Lance. Elm was timid, Rowan was thoroughly uncaring, and Birch, while possessing a spine, was in Hoenn and thus subject to its laws. "And if they come for you with Glacia?"

Reginald held up a custom pokéball; the design one Lance couldn't tie to someone, but the specific colour was enough information in and of itself. "That brings me to the last subject… Two, technically, though they are related. I suppose you do remember the mission from last summer?" Lance did, and he nodded. "The file on this has been altered recently. It now includes proper paperwork, permits, and the like, for a private research facility. Owned by an obvious shell company," the Gym Leader added. "What would you make of that?"

The only thing Lance could conceivably think of was… No, it couldn't be. "You think they are going to use it as a scapegoat?"

"It is the G-men activity that is easiest to explain away. The Magma cell last year and the Rocket activity back in March are spotless due to their respective statuses, but this was a more clandestine operation. Not quite black, but decidedly spotted. It is easiest to subvert. Operative identity is obscured, as far as I can tell."

That was _something,_ at least. "And how is this related?"

"If you remember, there was a disrupting effect on Psychic-types. In fact, not too dissimilar to the early outbreak of Ghost-types starting to behave peculiarly." Lance waved Reginald on, since this was already known to them. "One thing that caught my attention recently is that close to a dozen witnesses in police reports mention an unmarked white lorry or van driving through town. Those are common, but when in these numbers, I am going to assume there is enemy action involved."

The deduction struck Lance dumb. They had been working on an assumption that it had been some kind of localised radio signal, but similarly, they had assumed it to be a signal being transmitted from proper but hidden studios; perhaps underground or something. For it to be mobile made disturbing sense. "Who knows of this?"

"We are all here."

Another small blessing amidst the waves of bad luck. "If we could find proof – or at least a trail – towards those we suspect… This might be the breakthrough we need to convince other governments that Hoenn is not to be trusted."

"I did hear that Hoenn's newest ambassador to Sinnoh committed several faux pas in one weekend."

"Cynthia told me that there is no ideological love lost between their idealist government and the so-called Centrists here in Hoenn. Given enough proof, they will oppose." He smiled, and he knew it was not a friendly one. "It does not solve the problem, but perhaps this is the end of the beginning."

The talk ended there, abruptly as a wristwatch alarm went off. Reginald saluted before a flash of psionic energy caused Lance to blink, leaving him and his silent dragonite were alone on the gently swaying wooden surface.

They took off, Lance whispering to the Dragon-type to stay below normal cruising speed. Whatever he had been expecting when the summons had come, this was not it, and it far exceeded his darker expectations, despite the rays of light that he had clearly seen. Even so, they would come at great cost in the near future, and he hoped that Reginald's assumption that his escape was guaranteed was valid.

An hour later, when he came in range of shared Kanto-Johto radio communications, he took a small secure voice communicator into the palm of his hand, shielding it against the wind as dragonite slowed down. He sighed once, hating that he had to make this call, but… He couldn't not talk to the one at the other end. Oak might have had suspicions already – Reginald underestimated the old man's perceptiveness – but certainty was key in going forward.

"The ocean will sink."

 **~~§~~§~~**

The last thing Professor Maxim Birch had wanted was to wake up at five in the morning, not when he had been burning the proverbial midnight oil already in an effort to not feel overly guilty for taking a night off. But there had been a call, on a Pokénav few people knew he had, and even fewer knew the number of. The last time a call had come through that medium, the weather in Hoenn had just started to go haywire. It was with no small sense of trepidation that he had answered.

And what he had heard was nothing short of terrifying, though of a different scale than the last time. If it hadn't been for the other speaker's identity, he would have thought it to be a joke, but while Oak was fond of idle vaguely sarcastic put-downs of those beneath him, he did not kid about anything serious.

Oak's message; the certainty that there was to be some shake-up in the League hierarchy and that the government would seek to reclassify something – details weren't given on account of plausible deniability, but Birch was capable enough of reading between the lines – in the coming days, had been cause for him to spend time on making sure the laboratory was still safe. He had already moved as many Psychic, Ghost, and Dark-types as he could into the inner areas of the grounds so any signals being broadcast wouldn't affect as many. Now, he had spent the early morning contacting various high-level Trainers who kept their Pokémon with him, and asking for permission to use them as guards and scouts.

The white lorry comment had been enlightening, and Birch was firmly on board with Oak and Lance. If it showed up that much, even for such a common colour, it was probably more than coincidence. Sadly, he couldn't tell anyone he didn't fully trust about that, and after the past months… His list of people he trusted had grown short on the back of discussions and surprising revelations.

Having to remove an assistant from his laboratory and supervision for being unwilling to work with Ghost-type Pokémon had been the lowest point of his career, and it had led to a few hairy moments that he had carefully not told anyone not in the scientific world about.

The fact that the man went on to advise the government despite everything was still a sore point for him, and one that did little to endear them.

If he were honest, the list of people he trusted had dwindled to perhaps a dozen people, six of whom he'd visit later that day. That was going to be a headache in and of itself, what with his nephew and best friend having to explain why they had put themselves in mortal danger; over half a dozen times for the latter.

But that was in over seven hours. Now, he had a laboratory to make as safe as possible for anything that might come their way. Not exactly the best way to spend a Sunday, but a necessary one.

 **~~§~~§~~**

"Max not coming?" Keith asked as Danny walked up to the older teenager sitting on a bench in the centre of Petalburg. It was the day after they'd landed – the day before it was time to face the music – and thankfully, Danny had managed to shift his sleeping schedule to something surprisingly decent.

If you excepted the six o'clock wake-up.

He shrugged as he saw Jane walk back from a nearby ATM. "Called his Pokénav, didn't get an answer. Either he's deeply asleep, in the shower, or he's got other stuff to do." Danny's money was on the third, but it wasn't as if Max couldn't just drop by anyway after just calling to confirm where they were. Even without xatu, they were about ten minutes away from the Gym. "Dad said you had something to talk to us about?"

"Yeah," Keith said as Jane returned, giving a small wave when she noticed Danny. "I was coming back from Jane's last night when one of our old teachers found me. He..."

"He wants us to come and chat," Danny finished, knowing how much their old school had been proud of their achievements. "And since it's Mister Hillo… I'm guessing he still lives across from the school?"

"Best I know," Keith said, shrugging before he got up. "Go there first, do whatever after? Catch a film, maybe?"

That sounded fine by Danny, and Keith had obviously run it by Jane as well, and off they went across the comparatively quiet Sunday streets of Petalburg.

It was only just past eleven, which was part of the reason why it wasn't as busy yet. Shops opened at eleven, and most people didn't really venture out until after lunch, even on a beautiful day like the one they were having. Most of those they came across were either the elderly going for an early stroll or children running here and there. Sometimes there were Pokémon in tow, and on one occasion, the child was in tow, hurrying behind a playful houndoom that was deliberately half-dragging the laughing girl along, but overall, it was as normal as Petalburg had ever been.

So different from Lumiose, which never really slowed down until it was time for most people to go to bed.

And then, suddenly, a boy who had been drawing on the pavement looked up at them, and gasped loudly. "Tiff! Tiff!" he shouted, running towards the house he'd been playing in front of. "Get the—"

The teenagers looked at each other, and none of them had the faintest idea of what that was about, or what the boy was calling for. They stopped, wondering what was going to happen.

Seconds later, the boy exited the house, a younger girl following in tow, carrying a… Notebook? He ran up to them, taking the object from his sister with one hand; the other clasping his sister's wrist as they stopped. "Would you… Would you sign my sister's notebook?" he asked, hesitating for only a second.

Whatever Danny had been expecting, that was not it. He heard Keith muffle something off to the side, but he kept his eyes on the blonde-haired boy, who was looking up at him, eyes peeking out from behind long bangs as he held his sister's hand. "Uh… Sure?" he said after a second, trying desperately to remember what he'd always seen famous people do. "Is there anything you want me to write?"

The boy – about ten, if Danny had to guess – grinned widely, showing missing canine teeth. "Tiffany? What do you want?" he asked softly.

But the girl just buried her head in her older brother's side, nearly making him drop the notebook.

"Maybe something simple. 'To Tiffany, from Danny Birch' and autograph," Jane spoke up. "Can you show us what she wants signed?"

The boy nodded eagerly, opening the notebook with one finger, and quickly flipping back a few pages to find what he was looking for. "She drew this while I was watching your semi-final last week," he said, sounding proud. "Or trying to watch. She made me rewind a lot. Wanted to see more of him."

On the page that the boy had selected, Danny saw a simple figure, with lots of brown and large ears: diggersby. "You have a pen or… Thanks Jane," he interrupted himself as Jane offered a multi-coloured pen with six different colours of ink. He chose plain blue. "To Tiffany, hope you enjoyed diggersby's fighting. From Danny Birch." He offered the pen over his shoulder, and Jane took it back as an idea popped into his mind. "Tiffany? Would you like to see diggersby?"

 _That_ was enough to cause the girl to extract her face from her brother's ribcage. She was still lost for words, but there was no mistaking the eagerness and wonder on her face.

One hand released diggersby as the other held out the notebook. "Diggersby? This is Tiffany. She saw you on TV, and she even made a drawing of you."

The gruff-looking Pokémon carefully threw as much dirt as he could off one ear, before walking up and extending the ear, miming it going up and down in an imitation of a handshake.

The girl took the offered ear, and with a wide and disbelieving smile, she shook it, before looking up at Danny for the first time. She looked maybe seven, with adult incisors just starting to come in. "Can I pet him?"

"I'm not the only one you should ask," Danny gently replied, pointing down at diggersby when the girl gave him a confused look. "Most Pokémon are pretty smart. They'd have to be. It's only nice to ask them, too."

Diggersby wasn't going to say no, though, and he soon sat down next to the girl as she cooed over him, rubbing his fur gently, with the Ground-type making a lot of content-sounding noises.

He looked up to see a woman he thought he'd seen before standing in the distance, though Danny's memory was vague. Maybe… "You're going to our old school?"

"Yeah," the boy said as his mother waved and went back in, leaving the door open. "I'm in Mister Hillo's class, and we watched a ton of Kalos League the last two weeks. And the entire school watched the last battle between you and Mister Maple on Monday morning." The boy looked up at him, seemingly torn. "I was… Iwashopinghewouldwin."

The bashful admission nearly made Keith laugh, Danny could tell, but the pre-teen in front of them didn't notice as his face went red. He looked like he wanted to run away, but a shake of Danny's head stopped that. "Part of me was too," Danny admitted himself. "Max is better than I am. He deserved it more."

"Huh?"

Danny lifted his pendant up from underneath his shirt, the Key Stone instantly captivating the boy. "Just think about the Mega Evolutions we used. Max had a really good plan for dealing with aggron, and I just got lucky because dusclops apparently knew Destiny Bond. Drapion would have lost hard to manectric, I think." He glanced over at diggersby and the girl, and an idea sprang up in his head. "Do you want Max's autograph?"

It was all Danny could do not to laugh as he saw eyes boggle and a mouth drop open. Keith and Jane were less disciplined, not that they were noticed. "You…You'd ask him? Really?"

A shrug. "Sure. We're probably going to come by school this week. Going over to your teacher now to talk about that."

Danny thought the boy was about ready to explode with happiness on hearing that, and after a few more moments – during which Danny finally remembered to ask the boy's name – they left Tommy and Tiffany behind, with a promise that if it wasn't possible for them to come to school, Danny would drag Max along to the house later that week.

If they were allowed, of course. There was still a decent chance of being grounded or something similar after the night's dinner and explanation. They'd talked about what to say to try and defuse everything, and Max would try to talk to May today to get stories straight there as well, but… Parents were just unpredictable sometimes. There was no telling what the outcome would be.

He shoved that out of his mind as they resumed their walk. That was for tonight, and right now, Danny had other things to care about. Like spending time with good friends and catching up with an old teacher of his. A perfect way to spend a Sunday, if you asked him.

 **~~§~~§~~**

Max heard May slip into his room; and a lazy wave told his sister that he was awake after his attempt at a nap following a morning of helping Dad out in the Gym. A quick blind grab gave him back his glasses, and he slipped them on, opening his eyes and seeing the bandana-wearing teenager sit down at the mostly empty desk. "That's a few prizes, little brother. Planning to take more in Johto?"

"Yours is still bigger, and was bigger when you were my age," Max replied as he stretched after sitting up. "Though framing the ribbons like you did had something to do with that."

"Can't help it if ribbons are bigger than badges," his sister replied, giving him a grin. "And I definitely didn't get an award. Do you get anything else from that?"

"I think there was some kind of money attached. Didn't check my account," Max said. "As for the rest… Lots of fawning and title-calling. And that ceremony."

He knew it was inviting his sister to comment on that, but he didn't care. It was going to happen at some point anyway: there was only so much teasing you could do over the phone, and he knew his sister. It was going to happen at some point. "You looked pretty good in that. For someone who hasn't entered puberty."

"Dad was also late," Max retorted calmly, having been told the exact same thing the night before when asking him about a comment he had half-heard in the airport. "Can't all be like you."

May frowned at that, but didn't reply, instead picking up something else from his desk. "Do you think you'll see ralts again?"

Max shook his head. "No," he said, his mind quickly reliving those last few moments of ralts's life before he quashed it. "It's been nearly two years, May. We don't know who took him, what they did with him… For all I know, he's now with someone else."

"You say that as if ralts wouldn't just leave if he could," May half-scoffed. She sighed, and Max braced himself for some sisterly wisdom as he glanced over at the window. "I think you need to face it, Max. Ralts is dead, and you need to put him to rest." His head shot back, eyes blazing as they locked onto his sister's face just before Max realised his mistake in doing that. "Yes, Max. Don't tell me you haven't thought about that yourself."

It took him a few moments to reply, trying to not rail against his sister for being so damn insensitive. "And if ralts is dead, am I not allowed to honour his memory in a way I like?" he replied, his tone still harsh. "Grief is a personal thing, May. That's what Mum and Dad always say." He held up a hand, pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. "Let's just move on to tonight. I'd like both of us to get out of it with our travelling privileges intact."

Thank jirachi that May listened to that. "That's probably better," she admitted, showing at least some maturity. "You've probably already thought about most of the Ash situations already, haven't you? That's who you are."

As a matter of fact, he had, and he stood up, quickly locating his spiral-bound notebook and tearing one page out. A pen was fished out of a holder on his desk. "So," he said, quickly jotting six letters and a symbol onto the paper. "There are five times we were in Legendary-grade trouble with Ash. Jirachi," he said, pointing to the leftmost J, "LaRousse, groudon and kyogre, the Tree of Beginning, and Manaphy." He drew a universal male sign underneath the J, and a universal female sign underneath the M. "Jirachi is mostly my story. Manaphy is yours. We handle the questions on those."

He saw May nod, accepting his logic. "Seems okay. And… I was thinking myself. A lot of the groudon and kyogre stuff just happened because we were in the wrong place. I mean… Getting caught was just bad luck, and when they were released, we were in the safest spot we could be on Lance's gyarados, right?"

"If Lance didn't have enough flying Pokémon on him to evacuate us and be able to fight against either of them," Max replied, remembering the running battle with yveltal. "I think he said he had a kingdra with him at the time..."

"When did you ask him that?"

Shit. That had been something that had come up in Mauville Airport last December. "Asked him at some point after Geosenge," he lied quickly. "I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it. Lots of water around for kingdra to swim in, same as that gyarados."

"I guess," May said, sounding less convinced than Max liked. "But you agree that we can probably say something like that?" Max nodded quickly. "That just leaves LaRousse and the Tree of Beginning. I guess we'll have to wing that." Before he could react to that blasé statement, she grabbed him by the wristband. "Tell me, Max. Why on Earth did you go into that base?"

He twisted his wrist out of May's grasp without any issue, taking a step back and folding his arms. "You know what I think about people like Team Flare, Rocket, Aqua and Magma. You think I'm going to sit quiet when they're trying something?"

"You went into someone summoning a Legendary," May replied, at least making the effort to keep her voice down, though Max could hear her agitation even if he hadn't been able to see it. "That's just stupid!"

"Not like we knew they were at the time."

"Even worse. Why on earth would you just..." she trailed off in barely dignified spluttering. "I hope you'll have a better excuse tonight, Max. I'm not going to bail you out on this one."

With that, she stood up, pushing around Max to leave his room. He prevented the door from slamming, instead closing it and sitting down heavily as his left hand crawled underneath his pillow, feeling smooth paper.

He really didn't understand his sister, first going off like that and then running off before he could explain fully. If she'd stayed for a bit longer, he could have shown her the item under his pillow, giving a mostly true explanation of what had happened in the words of someone else.

Oh well, she would have to find out that night, and hopefully, their parents would accept it as well.

A clock chimed four downstairs, and Max stood up again. He swiped something off the desk before walking over to the window that gave him a good look of the neighbourhood. There were children playing all around, while a few adults looked on or walked past. It was as normal a Sunday as Max remembered from last year, or the years before, but somehow, it felt different now.

A look down reminded him of the why; leather and paint filling him with determination in the face of whatever was going to happen that night. No matter what his parents thought, Max knew that what he had done to get rid of Team Flare had been needed, and he knew that, whatever may happen, he would do it again. The only way to protect people like those playing children, those oblivious adults, and everything in between, was for certain Trainers to stand and fight against whoever tried to bend powerful Pokémon to their will.

And he was proud to be one of those fighters, even if his family might not understand.

 ** _FIN_**

 **~~§~~§~~§~~§~~**

 _Our primary, secondary, and tertiary goal in these times of common Pokémon attacks is to protect the citizens of Hoenn. To that end, we have instituted necessary limitations on Pokémon usage, and following that, attacks have diminished. Sadly, diminished implies that there is still a presence, and we will seek to expand our list of measures later this week. The details are being finalised._

 _[…]_

 _The important thing for the people of Hoenn is to trust in the government. We are those who stand between the lawlessness of criminals or the barbarity of rampaging Pokémon on one side, and civilisation of human and Pokémon alike on the other. We will fight to protect our great country, no matter who knocks on our gates._

– First Minister Santi of Hoenn, speaking on the _Sunday Hoenn_ show.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And thus ends this story after just about 300000 words (FFN lies and I don't include Disclaimers and ANs). I had fun writing, and I hope whoever is still reading this after my long-winded rambling had fun reading it as well.

There will be one more sequel - the greater story isn't over yet - but apart from a prologue that will be posted in two weeks, it'd be safe to assume that won't start until we hit 2018. Plotting needs to happen, buffers need to be made, and so on.

Thank you for reading, and until the next time!


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